This can be determined in a millisecond or in much less time than Gary Sanchez had at his disposal when Joey Gallo fed him a perfect first-round relay throw Friday night at Citi Field:
If the Yankees continue to plummet until the end of the playoffs, Sanchez’s failure to score Jonathan Villar in this play in this eventual 10-3 Metro Series defeat against the Mets will be the final moment of this crazy campaign.
“It’s an important play, it’s an important play,” Aaron Boone acknowledged after his Yankees (78-63) lost their seventh straight game. “But you have to deal with it over the course of a season, a game.”
Oh, the fact that Villar capitalized on Sanchez’s execution during the mile, recognized only after Manhattan-based referees knocked down his Queens counterparts through Luis Rojas ’repeat challenge, only tied the game at 1-1, and the Yankees took another lead in the second inning, 2 -1, before losing pitcher Jordan Montgomery, derailed in the third by conceding five runs. Two other Yankees made mistakes, though it seemed certain that Sanchez could have prevented one of them, Gio Urshela’s third. Gleyber Torres, murdered, could not point his finger at Sanchez after his throw in the seventh inning. And the visiting offense disappointed again. The Yankees faced off 10 times in seven innings against Mets starter Tylor Megill to give the rookie a high level.
But Sanchez’s error in a sequence that began with a Javier Baez single to Gallo on the left – and a terrible send-off from Villar by Mets third-base coach Gary DiSarcina, by the way – went be so blatant, so unnecessary, so symbolic of their worst moments at which the Yankees re-launched last winter that they had spent the night … and they could bring much more if the Yankees, now losers of seven in a row, cannot stop your bleeding. Gallo’s shot caused Villar to be nailed about 20 meters and Sánchez’s decision to evade the label allowed Villar to sneak under him.
Beyond the brutal.
“Obviously, it’s going to come out easy,” Boone said of Villar, “and I think [Sanchez] I felt like, because I was so out that I would retire, I got out of his athletic, crouched position. In that place where you have a dead boy for rights, you have to lower your body, maybe start contact, but stay athletic in your legs. “
When asked if he thought this mistake affected the Yankees for the rest of the game, Boone said, “Possibly.”
Miraculously, the Yankees still hold a place in the playoffs because the Orioles, of all clubs, stopped the Blue Jays ’streak of wins in eight games in Baltimore, the last four of those Toronto wins leading to the defeat of the Bronx Yankees. Therefore, the Yankees lead the Blue Jays (77-63) by half for the second wildcard slot in the American League.
This represents the slightest consolation for a team that cannot get out of its way. This could not capitalize on a perfect launch for the recent Gallo acquisition, a relief that would have ended the entry on a high note, retained an advantage and perhaps boosted the spirits of the troubled newcomer.
This is in the middle of a 2-11 that constitutes the worst stretch of the Yankees since 2000, according to ESPN.
“We’ve been the toughest team in the league,” DJ LeMahieu correctly said.
Sanchez has partially rewarded the Yankees for their faith in him, bouncing up a little above the league average offensively and reducing his balls past, even though there is still no Golden Glover behind the plate. A work like this really stings. It feeds its many critics. His supporters are faltering.
All the Yankees have to do is turn back so that this low-intensity light becomes a footnote. Can they meet this challenge? We will need much more time than a millisecond to find out and, if the answer is no, it will be a long and painful disappearance for this club and for those who love it.