How Gary Sanchez helped Yankees win despite no hits and another costly passed ball

Catcher Gary Sanchez overcame another big mistake behind the plate Tuesday night to play an important role in the Yankees’ 3-2 win.

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NEW YORK — Before the Yankees were throwing the ball around in the ninth inning Tuesday night and looking like they were going to gift the Boston Red Sox a win that would sew up the AL East …

Before Neil Walker wiped out the 1-0 deficit with a three-run, seventh-inning jack into the right field upper deck …

Before the Yankees held on for a 3-2 win that was a boost to their Wild Card Game home-field battle with the Oakland Athletics and delayed the Red Sox celebration …

Before all of that, Gary Sanchez was at it again making catching look harder than it should be for big leaguers.

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Passed ball No. 14 this season for Sanchez led to the only run of the game until Walker’s dramatic homer.

Like last season, Sanchez once again has the major league lead all to himself for this dubious stat, and this time being first in passed balls is more astonishing because he was on the disabled list for two months.

Here’s what happened:

Ian Kinsler led off the Red Sox third with a single off Yankees left-hander J.A. Happ, he took second on a balk and Steve Pearce followed with a walk, bringing up MVP candidate J.D. Martinez with two on and nobody out.

This pickle for Happ got worse when he threw an 0-1 fastball to Martinez that just missed the inside corner and missed most of Sanchez’ glove, as he turned his mitt the wrong way (once again) and wound up chasing it down at the backstop.

Just like that, the Red Sox had runners on second and third with nobody out, then they were up 1-0 two pitches later when Martinez hit a sacrifice fly to right.

The run ended up being unearned when Happ retired Xander Bogaerts on a flyball to shallow center for the second out to avoid another sac fly and Eduardo Nunez hit an inning-ending flyball to center.

What happened on the passed ball?

As usual, Sanchez downplayed the mistake.

“As you know, that’s part of baseball right there,” he said. “That passed ball, I called for a fastball outside and it cut inside. I tried to do the best I could there, but the important thing is at the end of the day we were able to win the game.”

That ball has to be caught, but Sanchez is right about his last statement. The Yanks won the game, and all of these late-season games are crucial because the Athletics are on their tail pushing for the first Wild Card.

To his credit, Sanchez did some contributing at the plate and behind it.

Although Sanchez’ average dipped to a hard-to-believe .187 with an 0-for-2 night that included a strikeout and weak comebacker, he worked a seventh-inning walk off Red Sox reliever Brandon Workman that led to Ryan Brasier coming into a two-on, one-out jam and allowing the game-turning homer to Walker.

“In my at-bat, I was trying to be patient,” Sanchez said. “They’re not throwing me many fastballs. There’s a lot of stuff outside of the zone, so I was trying to be calm and wait for a good pitch to hit and I ended up walking, and then Walker came in.”

Sanchez made up for his passed ball by being in sync most of the night with Happ, who allowed just the one unearned run and four hits over six strong.

Happ ended up with a no-decision that left him 6-0 with a 2.39 ERA in nine starts since he came over from Toronto in a late July trade. In three starts with Sanchez catching him, Happ has allowed just one earned run over 18 innings.

On Tuesday, the Red Sox managed only seven baserunners in six innings dealing with the Happ-Sanchez battery.

“Catching is never easy, but we always have a plan,” Sanchez said. “We’re communicating a lot before the game and during the game and tonight we executed the plan making sure that it was all good sequence and the end of the day just getting guys out.”

Passed ball and all, mission accomplished.

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