Sanchez’s new crouch affects bat: Alomar Stanton's homer could do the trick
Sandy Alomar spent two decades catching in the majors, so he has an understanding of the difficulties Gary Sanchez has faced this season in trying to adapt to a new stance behind the plate.
The results have been brutal, as Sanchez’s productivity at the plate plummeted this season and he was benched in favor of Kyle Higashioka with Gerrit Cole on the mound in Tuesday’s 12-3 win in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series against the Indians in Cleveland.
“He changed his style of catching and that’s a process,’’ said Alomar, who is serving as Cleveland’s manager during the postseason while Terry Francona deals with health issues.
“He has one knee down now and that’s gonna take time in order to see results,” Alomar said. “He’s a big guy with a good arm. I don’t know if that position is gonna help him a lot.”
The 6-foot-5 Alomar would know, although he stressed he hasn’t seen much of Sanchez this season, since the Yankees and Indians didn’t play during the regular season and he’s been limited to watching Sanchez on video.
But he knows how much of an impact a defensive change can have on a catcher’s offense.
“Absolutely,’’ Alomar said. “If you don’t feel comfortable yet with the situation and you’re trying to improve, it can affect your offense also. Possibly it’s affecting him. I don’t know.”
Aaron Boone and the Yankees made the move to Higashioka largely because of Gerrit Cole’s success pitching to Sanchez’s backup, and they were rewarded again as Cole struck out 13 while giving up two runs on six hits over seven innings.
In four regular-season starts with Higashioka behind the plate, Cole had a 1.00 ERA in 27 innings, compared to a 3.91 ERA in 46 innings over eight outings pitching to Sanchez.
“I know Gary and I know he’s extremely mentally tough,’’ said Higashioka, who went 1-for-5 in Tuesday’s win. “If anything, it’s gonna spur him on and [he’ll] perform even better and get back to his normal self.”
As the rest of the Yankees clobbered Cleveland pitching throughout their lopsided victory on Tuesday night, Giancarlo Stanton only contributed outs — and strikeouts. Hitless going into the top of the ninth, Stanton had one final opportunity to get himself going — and he may have done so.
Stanton capped off a 12-3 win with a 443-foot solo blast to left-center off Cam Hill. It was hardly an important blow or a dramatic shot, since the Yankees already led by eight runs, but the slumping Stanton will no doubt take it. Whether the home run, measured at 116.1 mph off the bat, is a sign of better things to come or just another garbagetime blast is still to be determined.
“We talked about that and hope it’s a big swing for him,’’ Aaron Boone said. “That ball, if you didn’t know who hit it and just watched the flight of the ball, there’s no mistaking — only Giancarlo hits a ball like that. He got a good swing off.”
His teammates wasted no time roughing up the Indians and their ace, Shane Bieber, pounding him for seven runs in just 4 2/3 innings.
For most of the night, though, Stanton didn’t get the memo.
As the rest of the lineup pounded Cleveland pitching, the slugger went hitless in his first four at-bats with two strikeouts.
Boone liked Stanton’s approach for much of the night, even if he had nothing to show for it.
“He had good swings, good recognition,’’ Boone said. “To get some results at the end, hopefully that’s something that gets him rolling a bit, too.”
Especially after his 2020 season was once again impacted by a hamstring injury.
He was mostly a nonfactor in last year’s postseason as well, after another injury-riddled regular season.
The Yankees had hoped both Stanton and Judge could overcome their leg injuries and regain their form in time for the playoffs.
Judge did so immediately, delivering a two-run homer just two batters into the game Tuesday.
Stanton, meanwhile, finished the regular season in a 7-for-35 skid that included 16 strikeouts.
On Tuesday, he grounded to short to end the top of the first, struck out with a runner on second to end the top of the third, fanned looking for the second out in the fifth and grounded out with two on and no outs in the seventh.
But he got one last shot in the ninth and held off calls for his benching — at least for a night.