Yankees.com: Sánchez’s late gamble proves costly as Yanks stumble in extras

From Bryan Hoch:

The Yankees were flashing their leather, opening the 11th inning with a pair of excellent defensive plays — Paul Goldschmidt scooping a short-hop throw at first base, then Ryan McMahon sliding at third to smother a hot grounder.

The tying run was still dancing 90 feet away, but thanks to his teammates’ efforts, Camilo Doval had a chance to escape. McMahon pounded his glove, watching closely. From behind the bars of his mask, so did Ali Sánchez , noticing Munetaka Murakami seemed a little slow getting back to the bag.

That tempted the Yankees catcher to gamble on a pickoff, a costly decision that proved pivotal in a 6-5, 12-inning loss to the White Sox on Wednesday.

“Me and McMahon felt that he was a little slow getting back to the base,” Sánchez said. “I just made a bad throw. I’ve got to make a better throw.”

When Doval threw a 2-0 sinker up and away to Andrew Benintendi, Sánchez whipped from his knees down to third base, forcing Murakami to dive back to the bag. The throw one-hopped McMahon, glanced off his glove and rolled down the left-field line as Murakami charged home with the tying run.

The simple fact of the matter is that pretty much EVERYthing had to go wrong for them to lose this game, and it did.

Jazz Chisholm struck out on a pitch right down the middle with a runner on third and one out (and, of course, the next batter didn’t get the run in with two outs).

Later, Trent Grisham struck out by TAKING A CALLED STRIKE THREE (it was a really good pitch, but what are you doing taking pitches at all with a runner on third and one out?!) with a runner on third and one out (and, of course, the next batter didn’t get the run in with two outs).

Cam Schlittler, who was breezing through the White Sox lineup, inexplicably walks the #2 hitter to lead off the seventh, hits the #3 hitter, and then gives up a double, leaving runners on second and third. He should have pitched eight, and instead, only got through six and a third.

The Yankee bullpen was tired, so Boone couldn’t use Headrick or Bednar, and he decided to go from never using Paul Blackburn to OVERusing Blackburn. Blackburn, who doesn’t give up a lot of home runs, then gave up BACK-TO-BACK homers. The Murakami homer was just a nice piece of hitting. The first home run was legit a terrible swing on a pitcher’s pitch that somehow just kept going. It was truly an ugly swing. Blackburn after the game was baffled, as he recalled feeling like he won that battle by getting the guy to swing at a bad pitch, it just kept carrying. Blackburn THEN pitched well for the rest of the 8th and 9th, of course (which will also take him out of the bullpen for the next two games).

Chicago lost the first two games, so their closer was fresh, and thus their manager was able to use him in the ninth AND the tenth, and he’s really good AND he strikes guys out (the perfect recipe for extras), so the Yankees weren’t able to score in the 10th.

Then, of course, the insane bit we see in the featured image where, with two outs in the 11th, McMahon and Sanchez decided to try to PICK THE RUNNER OFF THIRD BASE (by the way, to be SLIGHTLY fair, Murakami was bizarrely far off of the bag for such a slow runner. It was still idiotic with two outs). Just one of the dumbest plays you’ll see this season. And a terrible play by McMahon to not knock the ball down. I’ll assume Montgomery would have gotten a hit off of Doval, though.

Then, McMahon doesn’t score from second on a single in the 12th (Montgomery has a cannon in right, so you could defend this one. I’d still send him, as they were probably going to lose anyways, so just take the risk there).

Then, with the bases loaded and one out, Ben Rice struck out PATHETICALLY (he looked SO bad), and then Ali Sanchexz compounded his awful game by grounding out to end the inning on what was clearly Ball 4 (3-2 count, so it wasn’t like it was 3-1 or 3-0, but still terrible).

Finally, Boone inexplicably had the outfielders playing deep with a runner on third and one out in the bottom of the 12th, leading to a bloop single for the win (you have to wonder if they’d still try to score there if Grisham catches it. His arm is weak).

So, SO many things had to go wrong for them to lose this one, so while you can certainly bemoan that they all DID happen, at the same time, I think it’s also fair to say, “Fluky loss, just move on, especially since Sanchez won’t be here come Tuesday, and neither will Doval.”

Of course, while the Yankees can NEVER win on the road in extras, the Red Sox won in extras on the road AGAIN.

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