MLB

Gary Sanchez gaffe opens floodgates in ugly Yankees loss

Gary Sanchez reached back to catch a foul pop-up, only for the ball to drop behind him. 

That sparked an inning that dropped the Yankees out of a playoff spot with 13 games to go. 

The floodgates might have eventually opened even if Sanchez had caught the ball, but his error greased the way to a seven-run inning that sank the Yankees in a stinker of an 11-3 loss to the Indians on Saturday afternoon in The Bronx. 

“He just missed it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Anytime [there’s] a pop-up to the catcher right behind home plate, it has that backspin, so it comes back. But catchers are usually prepared for that. Gary’s actually usually really good with pop-ups. I think he probably got a little too upright and didn’t move enough as it worked its way back to the field. 

“But yeah, you’ve got to make that play.” 

Gary Sanchez reacts after dropping a foul pop up on Saturday.
Gary Sanchez reacts after dropping a foul pop up on Saturday. Bill Kostroun/New York Post

On a day when they also lost Joey Gallo after three innings due to neck tightness, the Yankees (83-66) dropped a game further behind the Red Sox and Blue Jays, who both won. The Red Sox moved 1 ½ games ahead of the Yankees for the first wild card while the Blue Jays leapfrogged them into the second spot. 

“We gotta be a goldfish and have a 10-second memory,” said Luke Voit, who hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to soften the final deficit.

On the next pitch, Gil hit Mercado on the hands with a pitch. He then walked Jose Ramirez on four pitches to end his day.

Albert Abreu replaced Gil and immediately gave up an RBI double to Franmil Reyes for a 2-0 deficit.

After Abreu hit Harold Ramirez with a pitch to load the bases, Chang drilled a two-run double. Owen Miller then grounded a single up the middle with the infield in to make it 5-0.

The crowd of 39,088 gave Sanchez a Bronx cheer when he caught a foul pop-up by Austin Hedges for the second out. But the next batter, ex-Met Andres Gimenez, pounded a three-run homer that put the Indians ahead 8-0.

Gary Sanchez's gaffe opened the floodgates.
Gary Sanchez’s gaffe opened the floodgates. AP

Sanchez’s misplay continued his rough couple of days behind the plate. On Thursday in Baltimore, Sanchez failed to stop two wild pitches (including one when the Yankees were one strike away from a win) in the ninth inning of what turned into a crushing loss to the Orioles.

Following Cleveland’s seven-run fifth, Andrew Heaney mopped up the next three innings to spare the Yankees’ bullpen, but he gave up two more home runs — one after a throwing error by third baseman DJ LeMahieu — as the Indians padded their lead.

The Yankees avoided a shutout when Giancarlo Stanton crushed a solo home run in the seventh inning, his 30th of the season, to make it 10-1.

Luke Voit added a two-run homer in the eighth inning to cut the deficit to 11-3.