Austin Romine tweaks hamstring; Yankees make roster move

Yankees catcher Austin Romine left Saturday night’s game after six innings with a tight left hamstring.

NEW YORK — Literally and figuratively, Saturday night was painful for the Yankees.

You get shut out 11-0 playing the Red Sox in front of the largest crowd ever at this Yankee Stadium with sole possession of first place on the line, it’s going to sting a little even though it’s one loss in a long season.

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What could hurt the Yankees way more is catcher Austin Romine not making a very quick recovery from a tight left hamstring that was enough of a concern that he was pulled from this lopsided affair after six innings and then sent to a hospital for an MRI.

Remember, Romine backs up 2017 All-Star Gary Sanchez, who went on the disabled list last Monday with a groin injury that has an expected recovery time of 3-to-4 weeks.

Here’s good news”

The MRI results were negative on Romine, who wasn’t available for post-game comment because he’d left the ballpark for his MRI.

And here’s more good news:

The Yankees used an open roster spot that was created after Saturday’s game by recalling reliever David Hale from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as opposed to a catcher.

Even before getting the MRI results, Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed to downplay the injury.

“He had some tightness in his leg, so we’ll see (about Sunday),” Boone said. “I just wanted to be a little cautious and get him out of there with the (lopsided) score. … We wanted to try to protect him a little bit.”

Making an immediate return from just a hamstring tweak, however, can lead to a serious injury, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Yankees played it safe at least for Sunday and perhaps a few days.

If Romine’s injury was more serious, then the Yankees’ catching tandem for the time being probably would have been Kyle Higashioka, who was called up last week from Triple-A to replace Sanchez, and Wilkin Castillo, who was a candidate to be summoned in for Sunday night’s series finale against Boston.

“I’ll be ready,” Higashioka said.

Higashioka, 28, is 0 for 20 as a big-league hitter in 11 games over two seasons with the Yankees after popping up to first in his lone at-bat Saturday and going 0 for 2 in a start last Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

Castillo, 34, is a switch-hitter with a career .314 average as a big leaguer, but they came in just 35 at-bats and all were with the Cincinnati Reds from 2008-09.

This year, the Dominican was playing in an independent league before signing with the Yankees on May 24 and being sent to Triple-A after veteran catcher Erik Kratz was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for cash or a player to be named.

The Yankees dumping Kratz from their top farm team was odd at the time because the 38-year-old has a lot more big-league experience than Higashioka. Plus, Kratz has good power from the right side, as he’s hit 27 homers in 646 career major league at-bats through Saturday, including three for the Brewers this season in 45 ABs.

Castillo has hit .244 playing 13 games for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Both Higashioka and Castillo are considered decent defenders and game-callers behind the dish.

Castillo isn’t on Yankees’ 40-man roster

The Yankees opened up a spot on their active 25-man roster after Saturday’s blowout loss by optioning reliever Giovanny Gallegos to Triple-A on the heels of his three-run, two-inning mop-up outing.

Besides Castillo, the Yankees’ only Triple-A catcher is Francisco Diaz, a 28-year-old Venezuelan with no big-league experience who has bounced around this season from high-A Tampa to Double-A Trenton to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Romine was hot early in the season backing up Sanchez – he hit .373 with four homers and 19 RBIs in his first 2 games through June 4 – but he’s been slumping for a month.

After going 0 for 1 with a walk on Saturday, Romine is 4 for 36 in his last 11 games, including 1 for 17 in four games since Sanchez went on the DL.

Also, Romine has been a personal catcher for the last two months for Sonny Gray, and the often-struggling righty followed a good stretch with a terrible six-run, 2 1/3-inning pitching to the Red Sox on Saturday.

Yankees ace Luis Severino (12-2) will start on Sunday night against former Cy Young winner David Price (9-5).

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.