How Yankees’ Gary Sanchez intends to fix 1 of his problems over winter

Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez detailed how he intends to improve next season following the ALDS Game 4 loss to the Red Sox.

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NEW YORK — One of the best at-bats that Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez had all year was his last.

On a night Reggie Jackson was on the field watching batting practice, Bucky Dent threw out the ceremonial first pitch and Aaron Boone was managing the Yankees, Sanchez almost joined them as franchise legends with a historic home run on their resume.

What we learned from Yankees’ crushing ALDS loss to Red Sox

Just before the 2018 Yankees were slayed to death Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium by the hated Red Sox in Game 4 of their best-of-five ALDS, Sanchez’s seven-pitch battle with Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the ninth almost turned into a season-saving, series-tying, walk-off grand slam.

Instead, his fly high to deep left was caught on the warning track by Andrew Benintendi and Sanchez settled for a sacrifice fly that cut the Red Sox’s lead to a run, and that’s how it ended when a replay review confirmed Gleyber Torres was out at first after hitting a ground ball to third with the tying and winning runs aboard.

“I hit it well, but got under it,” Sanchez said after the Yankees’ 4-3 loss.

Go figure.

That’s the story of his season.

Maybe the best-hitting catcher in baseball as a rookie in 2016 and again in 2017, Sanchez hit .186 in a frustrating 2018 that included two months on the DL and those major-league most 18 passed balls.

His postseason mostly was a disappointment, too. Sanchez darn neared carried the Yanks to their Game 2 ALDS win with a two-homer, four-RBI night at Fenway Park, but he finished the playoffs just 3-for-18 in five games.

Sanchez addressed all of this in his post-game presser, which included some excuse making and some honesty.

The excuses came when he was asked about his passed balls, and he responded with to his go-to line for media criticism about his receiving.

“We’re not perfect as human beings,” he said. “As a catcher, passed balls are going to happen. But to me it’s about improving … improving in all aspects of being a catcher. That’s going to be a priority.”

It better be his No. 1 priority.

Offseason priority 1A for Sanchez should be figuring out how he could go from being a .299 hitter with 20 homers in 53 games as a rookie to hitting .289 with 33 homers last season to batting .186 this year with 18 homers.

Actually, Sanchez says he already knows why he was so bad.

Asked what went wrong, Sanchez answered, “They were pitching me very tough throughout the whole season. They were executing very good pitches that were out of the strike zone, but I was swinging at them. That’s one of the things that I want to work on in the offseason. Command the strike zone better. Be a more selective hitter.”

It can be done.

Just look at Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, who had a career high 48 walks this season after managing only 19 in 2016 and 25 last year.

Sanchez sounded determined to show up for 2019 spring training mentally prepared to return to his 2016-17 form.

“A tough year,” Sanchez said. “A lot of ups and downs throughout the whole season. To me, not a good year based on my standards. Now we have to look forward to the offseason and work on all the things I want to improve for next year.”

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