Gary Sanchez on Saturday failed to catch a foul popup that led to a seven-run fifth inning capped by Andres Gimenez’s three-run homer, as home runs from Taiwan’s Yu Chang and Franmil Reyes led the Cleveland Indians to rout the Yankees 11-3, which dropped New York out of a playoff position.
“Definitely a play there that I’m used to making, especially this year. I thought I’ve been very good catching those flies,” Sanchez said through a translator. “I think this is the first one I missed this year, but just a bad read there with the fly ball.”
Reyes hit an RBI double off Albert Abreu in the big fifth inning and a two-run homer in the sixth against Andrew Heaney.
Photo: AP
Chang put the Indians ahead with a second-inning homer off Luis Gil (1-1) and added a two-run double in the fifth against
Abreu. Jose Ramirez hit his 34th homer in the eighth against Heaney.
New York has 13 games left and fell a half-game behind the Toronto Raptors for the second American League wild card. The Yankees dropped 1-1/2 games behind the wild card-leading Boston Red Sox.
A day after the Yankees won the series opener 8-0, they fell behind 10-0 by the sixth inning on Don Mattingly Bobblehead Day. The former Yankees captain was a six-time All-Star, but missed the playoffs in all but one of his 14 big league seasons.
Sanchez failed to tag out the Mets’ Jonathan Villar last weekend when Joey Gallo’s throw reached the plate 20 feet ahead of him, then was criticized by manager Aaron Boone after failing to prevent two costly wild pitches in Thursday’s 3-2, 10-inning loss in Baltimore.
Sanchez overran a foul pop behind the plate by Oscar Mercado in the fifth inning, misreading the backspin as the ball fell on the dirt behind the plate. He was charged with his sixth error.
The Yankees have made 92 errors, the fourth-most in the major leagues.
Mercado slammed his bat in frustration thinking the at-bat was over, but returned to the plate and was hit by a pitch.
Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit hit late homers for New York, which has lost 14 of 21 following a 13-game winning streak.
Cleveland is just 72-74 and won for only the third time in 11 games after allowing five homers in Friday’s series opener.
“It was good to see us play that kind of game after yesterday,” Indians interim manager DeMarlo Hale said.
Mercado’s hit began a string of six straight hitters to reach base. Ramirez walked and Reyes greeted Abreu with a double over leaping third baseman DJ LeMahieu.
Chang doubled for a 4-0 lead and Owen Miller hit an RBI single through the drawn-in infield.
Fans cheered sarcastically when Sanchez caught Austin Hedges’ popup, and Gimenez homered for an 8-0 lead.
Reyes hit a two-run homer in the sixth following LeMahieu’s throwing error.
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