Gary Sanchez found the middle ground in his Mets debut that often eluded him during the wild highs and lows of his Yankees’ career.
Appearing in his first MLB game this season two days after he was called up from Triple-A Syracuse, Sanchez didn’t slug one of the home runs that helped him become a two-time All-Star across town.
He also didn’t make any of the mistakes behind the plate that turned him into a much-criticized defensive liability.
Sanchez singled in the middle of a two-out rally that set up the Mets’ first run and drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly from the No. 8 spot in the lineup during a 5-4 victory against the Guardians in the first game of a doubleheader at Citi Field.
“It was exciting because we were able to get the win, most importantly,” Sanchez said through an interpreter. “I’m happy with the way that it went.”
Before he closed out the game catching old Yankees’ batterymate Dave Robertson, Sanchez guided Max Scherzer through six scoreless innings when the ace was forced to rely on a higher percentage of curveballs because of a split thumb callus.
“He made me look good, just the type of pitcher that he is — a Hall of Famer who is able to locate all his pitches pretty easily,” Sanchez said. “I thought it would be a little more difficult, but it wasn’t.”
Saturday’s rainout essentially assured Sanchez would start one of Sunday’s two games.
Manager Buck Showalter picked the first for “a lot of factors,” including that he didn’t “want Gary waiting around too long” to get back in a lineup after he was hot in the minors (1.014 OPS in 37 plate appearances).
“I had a good pregame conversation with him on what we wanted to do with guys,” Scherzer said. “I felt like he was kind of creative in how he called pitches. … Knowing when to stick with the heater, knowing when to mix off-speed and stay irrational, that’s what creative means. For no experience working together, it actually worked pretty well.”
Sanchez’s starring role with the Yankees faded during the 2020 and 2021 seasons and he was traded to the Twins.
He began this season at Triple-A for the Giants but asked for his release this month and stepped into a situation where the injury-depleted Mets were desperate for catching.
Tomas Nido (dry eye syndrome) is on a rehab assignment and Omar Narvaez (strained calf) is scheduled to begin one soon.
Rookie Francisco Alvarez, who started the second game against the Guardians, is making a case to remain the starter.
Sanchez is under pressure to deliver quickly or lose his spot to a potential logjam.
“I’m just focused on doing my job and taking advantage of the opportunity I have,” Sanchez said. “We have a lot of catchers on this team. But we’re all just trying to do the same thing, which is help the team win.”