“I heard someone say, ‘It’s not a surprise anymore, ‘ kind of joking around”, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “He’s carried us. We are not even close to talking about a playoff berth if Gary doesn’t come up and do what he has done”.
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Among his many accolades, Sanchez became the fastest player to reach 11 home runs in his career (23 games), the first player ever with at least 10 homers and 30-or-more hits in his first 22 games, as well as earning Rookie of the Month and Player of the Month honors for August. He has eight home runs in his last 12 games after a 10-game drought. There may be an argument out there than Sanchez might not be as good if he had played 100 games for the Yankees, but there is no way to know. The four home runs in an inning set a Rays record.
He bested Wally Berger of the 1930 Boston Braves, who went deep 19 times in his first 51 games.
Gary Sanchez belted two more home runs Wednesday, and drove in five runs against the Rays to boost the Yankees to an 11-5 victory – a second straight night at Tropicana Field that saw the young catcher keep the Yanks’ faint postseason heartbeat going.
“Once Gary hit that home run, there was a big sigh of relief that ‘OK, we’re back where we want to be, ‘ ” Teixeira said.
“I feel good”, Sanchez said. The last-place Rays have dropped four of their last five games and lost 11 of 18 against NY in 2016. 1B Mark Teixeira hit his 204th home run as a Yankee on Tuesday, moving past Roger Maris (203) and tying Robinson Cano (204) at 14th on the Yankees’ all-time list.
Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury (bruised right knee), third baseman Chase Headley (back spasms) and second baseman Starlin Castro (strained right hamstring) were all out of the lineup for the second straight game.
Luis Severino (3-8) finished the sixth and tossed a ideal seventh for the win.
The Yankees tacked on three runs in the ninth – two on Donovan Solano’s first home run as a Yankee – to give Dellin Betances the night off as Jonathan Holder finished up in the ninth.
After a 9-17 start, NY struggled to significantly elevate themselves above a.500 record for most of the first half, forcing a “reshuffling” of the deck, to use Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman’s phrase. The latter three were consecutive, marking the third time in franchise history the Rays went back-to-back-to-back. Utility man Nick Franklin (left hamstring) might not play again this season. The 2015 first-round draft pick might pitch in the Arizona Fall League. I think he’s proven he’s capable of doing it.
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Yankees: RHP Masahiro Tanaka (13-4), who is 6-0 in his last eight starts, takes the ball Wednesday night. Rays starter Alex Cobb (1-1) got only four outs and gave up nine hits and seven runs in a rough outing. For his career, he’s 5-2 with a 2.13 ERA, and among pitchers with 10 or more starts against NY, the.187 average is the lowest in baseball history.
