Yankees waste huge day from Gary Sanchez, falter again vs. last-place Orioles

NEW YORK — “All the feels” seemed to be the best descriptive phrase for the Yankees’ 8-7 loss to the Orioles Sunday at Yankee Stadium. 

Giancarlo Stanton drew a loud ovation for his skydiving catch to end the top of the sixth.

Gary Sanchez received a curtain call after hitting the second home run of his six-RBI day a half-inning later.

Andrew Heaney then got booed off the mound after allowing lowly Baltimore back into the game in the seventh.

Finally, in the ninth, came the groans from the crowd of 33,091 after Aaron Judge, Stanton and Anthony Rizzo all flied out, sealing the Yankees' fate and dropping their 2021 record against the Orioles to 9-7.

“Incredibly frustrating that we didn’t put our best foot forward the last couple days," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, whose club dropped 2-of-3 in the series and must turn its focus to a Toronto team that has won 7-of-8.

“We’ve got obviously a very good, hot team coming in to play us, and we’ve got to do better. But the good thing is, we hold the pen – we get to write the story still, and we’ve responded from tough days, tough moments, tough stretches, and we have to do it again.”

New York (78-58) failed to capitalize on losses by AL East rivals Tampa Bay and Boston, both of which have fared markedly better against last-place Baltimore (43-92) this season.

A crackin’ day for the Kraken

Sanchez helped the Yankees erase a 1-0 deficit with his third career grand slam in the bottom of the second. He worked a nine-pitch at-bat, running the count full before unleashing a shot to left.

In the sixth inning, he added a two-run blast to nearly the same spot, scoring Gleyber Torres (2-for-4, two runs) and producing his 15th career multi-home run game and first in almost exactly two years (Sept. 3, 2019 vs. Texas).

Rizzo got the other New York RBI when he dropped a bloop single into shallow right-center in the fifth. But it wasn't enough, as Heaney (8-9) allowed the first four batters he faced in the top of the seventh to reach base, culminating with Jahmai Jones' two-run double.

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Heaney induced a popout before Jorge Mateo singled home the tying run, and the lefty was lifted for Wandy Peralta. Kelvin Gutierrez then singled home Jones with the winning run.

Third baseman Gio Urshela also returned to the diamond, pinch-hitting in the eighth before closing out the game at third.

Corey Kluber still seeking top form

In his second start since coming off the injured list, Corey Kluber had a better time limiting the damage. His lone big mistake was a leadoff homer surrendered to Austin Hays in the second.

The right-hander departed with two outs in the fourth after putting the tying run on base with a hit-by-pitch in a 4-2 game. He threw 78 pitches, 10 more than in his previous start, while his strike percentage went down slightly (from 63.2 to 58.9) from his last appearance.

“I just didn't think I did a good enough job of making adjustments today,” Kluber said. “There was some good sprinkled in there, but I would expect myself to make adjustments better than I did to kind of reel it in.”

Sunday, four of his five strikeout victims went down swinging, and the two earned runs he allowed over 3⅔ innings nudged his ERA up to 3.69.

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Another pitching injury

The Yankee bullpen already was taxed with three relievers having worked both Friday and Saturday. Sunday morning, news came down that Jonathan Loáisiga had landed on the IL with a strained rotator cuff. The right-hander will “be no-throw for 10 days,” per Boone, one day after having a cortisone shot in his shoulder.

“Lo’s been awesome. He’s been one of the best relievers in all of baseball,” Monday starter Jameson Taillon said of Loáisiga. “He’s pitched so many different scenarios for us – he’s pitched big jams in the middle of games, he’s closed games out, he’s given us length and gone multiple [innings] a few times for us throughout the year.

“It definitely hurts,” Taillon added. “He’s not a guy that we can just go out there an replace, obviously, but we’ve got a lot of pieces in that bullpen.”

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