NEW YORK _ Aaron Boone went to bat for his catcher a day after Yankees fans booed Gary Sanchez off the field during the Yankees' 4-1 loss to the Astros in ALCS Game 3 on Tuesday.
Sanchez took a few practice hacks from the on-deck circle as Astros ace Gerrit Cole warmed up to begin the bottom of the sixth inning. The Yankees trailed Houston, 2-0, and the crowd was beginning to lose its patience with New York's underwhelming offense. And yet, with 12 outs remaining and the bottom of the Bombers' lineup due up, hope persisted.
But Sanchez struck out looking on six pitches to leadoff the sixth. An obvious sense of deflation shrouded the ballpark. That was Sanchez's sixth strikeout of the series, and 10th of the postseason. A barrage of boos followed Sanchez as he ambled, melancholic as ever, back into the Yankees dugout.
"Clearly he hasn't been at his best offensively, but with a guy as talented as he is, I think that's right around the corner _ always," Boone said on Wednesday during a conference call with reporters.
The 26-year-old catcher is batting .095 (2-for-21) over six playoff games against the Twins and Astros. He's drawn three walks, scored one run and has otherwise been unproductive at the plate.
Boone emphatically rejected the idea of backup catcher Austin Romine earning a postseason start over Sanchez. The Yankees skipper was asked whether a groin strain Sanchez dealt with during the last month of the regular season is still lingering. Boone said "that's certainly possible" and it's normal to wonder whether a recent injury is impacting Sanchez's rhythm at the plate.
"Hitting is fickle like that. Hitting is hard," Boone said. "Like we've seen with Aaron Hicks, he's out a couple of months and kind of looks like he hasn't missed a beat with the quality of his at-bats. Sometimes you kind of lock it right back in right away. Other times it takes a little while to find that consistency.
"It's hard to really predict, frankly. All you can do is get guys ready and prepared the best you can and hope that their talent goes out there and gets it done for them," Boone said.
Adding insult to injury, Sanchez was criticized for his blocking behind the plate on a Zack Britton sinkerball that bounced away from the catcher and scored another run for Houston in the top of the seventh inning. Boone, again, complimented his catcher during tough situations.
"Let's start with the other side of the ball, which completely gets lost in this," the Yankees manager said. "And without sugarcoating at all, he's been excellent behind the plate from a game calling standpoint, from a game plan target, receiving. A lot of people are making a lot of the block. There's a lot of 94-mile-an-hour fastballs that guys don't block. Guys aren't always set up to block a fastball. That's kind of a 50/50 play.
"The bottom line is, his body of work in this postseason, and frankly down the stretch in the second half of the season defensively, has been excellent. So that part has me feeling really good about him. And just knowing how talented of an offensive player he is, I always feel like he's a pitch away or an at-bat away from really getting locked in and changing the course of a game," he said.
The Yankees will need Sanchez to return to form and help spark the offense as they try to level the series against the Astros.
