Highly criticized duo make critical plays in huge rally

If it were up to many Yankee fans, Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres would never see the field again.

But the two highly criticized Yankees played huge roles in Wednesday’s comeback 7-3 win over the Rangers, propelling their team back into the second wildcard spot in the AL, ahead of the Blue Jays, who lost at the Rays.

With the score tied in the eighth, Torres followed Joey Gallo’s two-out double with a double of his own to give the Yankees their first lead.

“The at-bat before with the bases loaded [in the sixth] I struck out,’’ Torres said. “I wanted to put the ball in play.”

Torres then scored from second on an infield single by Gio Urshela and an error by Yonny Hernandez at second, outracing Hernandez’s throw home, before Sanchez iced the game with a homer.

Sanchez, who started the game on the bench, entered in the top of the eighth after Kyle Higashioka was pulled for pinchrunner Tyler Wade.

He made an immediate impact, making a perfect throw to second to prevent Adolis Garcia from stealing the base.

“When he’s rolling, we’re a great team,’’

Higashioka said of Sanchez. “It was great to see that swing from him.”

Higashioka, regularly catching both Gerrit Cole and Corey Kluber now, will still get plenty of playing time, but Sanchez won’t be forgotten.

“It’s gonna take both of them to get us where we want to go,’’ manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll do what we have to do every day to piece it together.”

Both players have had their roles scrutinized and changed in recent weeks, with Sanchez losing playing time behind the plate and Torres being bumped from shortstop to second base.

The Yankees haven’t given up on either player, with Boone saying, “It’s all hands on deck.”

He credited Sanchez with “a huge throw and a huge swing to put the game away.”

And Boone said he was encouraged by what he saw from Torres, whose move to second base has forced DJ LeMahieu to go to third and Urshela to shortstop.

Torres belted an opposite-field double, something that used to be commonplace.

“We’ve seen that a lot from him,’’ Boone said of Torres. “That’s what he’s capable of. That’s why it’s so important to get him rolling. He’s a differencemaker.”