Yanks' Sanchez hits three homers, wanted four

BALTIMORE -- Granted one final plate appearance Sunday afternoon, Gary Sanchez sauntered from Camden Yards' visiting on-deck circle to its batter's box with one thought on his mind.

It was the same thought many in the 33,102-person crowd had, and one that was even murmured about in the New York Yankees' dugout: "Do you think he's trying to hit another one right here?"

You're darn right he was.

"I tried to do what everybody was thinking about," the Yankees designated hitter said through a translator, smiling.

Having already hit a career-best three home runs in the game, Sanchez settled into the box in the top of the ninth trying to hit a fourth. But well out in front of position-player-turned-pitcher Hanser Alberto's 67.9 mph breaking pitch, he just missed it, flying out to left with a towering drive.

"That would've been a way to top it off," Yankees left fielder Clint Frazier said. "But three homers isn't too bad, either."

Overall, the Yankees hit seven home runs in Sunday's 15-3 win over the Orioles. Across the three-game weekend set that they swept, the Bronx Bombers homered 14 times. That's the most homers they've hit in a three-game road series in franchise history, and it's the third most in a three-game road series in major league history.

"Never too much for us," manager Aaron Boone said. "I'm good with us hitting as many as we need to."

Of the last 29 runs the Yankees have scored, 26 have come via the long ball. At one point Sunday, the Yankees were in the middle of an 18-run stretch in which all of their scoring production had been the result of home runs.

As for Sanchez's three-homer showcase, it was the Yankees' first since last July, when Aaron Hicks hit three at home against the Boston Red Sox. This also was only the fourth three-homer game for a Yankees DH in franchise history. Alex Rodriguez posted a pair of three-homer games as a DH on July 25, 2015, and Aug. 14, 2010. Cliff Johnson also did it on June 30, 1977.

Beyond the historical significance of Sanchez's homer barrage, the long balls also served a greater purpose for him. They appeared to be proof that he may be back to form after a shoddy, injury-plagued 2018 season that saw him hit just .186 with 18 homers in 89 games.

"He's a great player that's still growing, and it's our job to help him continue to reach his peak on every facet of the game," Boone said. "He's making strides in a lot of areas of the game, and we know we've got a special talent on our hands, and a guy who impacts the game -- period."

Although Sanchez entered Sunday's game batting .192, Boone had been seeing signs of late that a breakout performance like this one could have been on the horizon.

"He's hit a number of balls, actually, really well," Boone said. "He's had some at-bats where he's had to strike out or whatever, but he's had two or three balls that were close to homers, going back to the homestand [last week], even. I feel like he's been really close. I feel like he's been on a lot of pitches."

While Sanchez's bat has been coming along in recent days, other aspects of his play weren't trending as smoothly. He needed a day like this one to put an otherwise troublesome weekend behind him.

It was during the first two games of the series when Sanchez was picked off by Orioles catchers at both second base and third base.

"The key thing is -- I keep saying this -- mistakes are going to happen in the game. If you don't make a mistake, then you don't play baseball," Sanchez said. "They're going to happen from time to time, but the important thing about that is to flip the page and focus on today. I was able to do that [Sunday]."

Sanchez apparently has been seeing the ball so well that each of his past six hits have been home runs. The last Yankee to record six straight homers: Darryl Strawberry in 1998.

There were other Yankees this weekend to enjoy multihomer games. Frazier, who until Saturday night hadn't homered since July 2017, hit another two home runs Sunday. The four-hit day was a career best for him, and it comes after his 2018 season was mostly derailed due to a spring-training concussion that lingered throughout the year.

He reported to camp this spring completely healthy and symptom-free.

Due to the Yankees' deep 11-man injured list, Frazier will be getting more consistent playing time for the foreseeable future. He believes that alone is having a positive impact.

"Playing every other day is difficult, especially when you go from playing every day. It makes me probably put a little more pressure on myself than I should," Frazier said. "Whenever I get consistent at-bats, I feel more comfortable at the plate, and I feel a part of this team."

To both Boone and Frazier, the most important at-bat of his day was the one he had in the sixth, when he chopped a well-struck grounder up the middle for a single. Gleyber Torres scored off it.

"It's something I've been trying to work on," Frazier said of going up the middle. "In spring I was a little pull-happy because I hadn't been in the game in a little while, and the approach is something you have to continue to ingrain in your system over and over again.

"My [batting practices] have resembled what I'm trying to do in the games, and that's think up the middle and get low line drives."

Along with Frazier and Sanchez, Torres and Aaron Judge also had multihomer games during the series. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that's the most players to have multihomer games in a series in Yankees history.