By the time the Yankees completed their 8-4 victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, Gary Sanchez was no longer trending on Twitter. On this front, the Yankees will make progress where they can find it.
The human trending subject has had a rough game time in a rough season, strikingly striking with the bases being loaded for the second time in two nights, and he added a passed ball behind the plate. He ended his work shift with a few walks, when the newly recalled Erik Kratz Game 2 began.
In 12 games totaling 41 plate appearances, Sanchez possesses a .086 / .220 / .200 slashline, with 20 strikeouts.
‘I actually feel like he’s been in the fight a lot more these last few days,’ Aaron Boone. “He’s still not where he should be, but if you look at the last three days compared to a week ago, like four or five days ago, I think there’s a big difference. That hopefully he gets close by really breaking through. ”
He can break social media first. In the opener of Friday’s series, which saw the Yankees lose 1-0, Sanchez came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning. He struck out on three fields against Rays reliever Nick Anderson. Then, in his first at-bat Saturday, he found himself reloading the bases in a scoreless game, this time with only one out. Against Tampa Bay starter Tyler Glasnow, he worked the count full, started making an extra offer and then swung through a high fastball that sure would have been ball four. Brett Gardner followed with a strikeout of his own.
When the Yankees threw Glasnow the next innings out of the game, throwing up a fourth-place finish (it could have been more if Sanchez Gio Urshela hadn’t strangled in second place with a pop to the right field), some air came out of the Sanchez- balloon, and he took a few walks in his last two trips to the plate. Yet he has miles to go before he can, statistically, see himself closer to his peak, away from this early 2020 horror show.
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