Yankees catching coach: How Gary Sanchez must get past meltdown

What Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez has to do to overcome his latest meltdown, via the team’s catching coach.

SEATTLE — It wasn’t so much about Gary Sanchez‘s defense, but his talking, Yankees catching coach Jason Brown said.

“Just making sure they’re on the same page when they go out there and the game starts,” he said before the Yankees’ 4-0 win over the Mariners at Safeco Field on Friday.

The game before, Sanchez experienced his worst night behind the plate in a short career that’s been mostly a defensive low-light reel.

He gave up two passed balls and another Luis Severino two wild pitches in a four-run first inning of an ugly loss to the A’s in Oakland on Wednesday.

It mean that Sanchez would move into a tie with Houston’s Martin Maldonado with 13 passed balls — the most in baseball. Except Maldonado has played far more innings than Sanchez, who has missed almost two months thanks to groin injuries.

Afterward, Sanchez and Severino each blamed miscommunication on signals for the poor display.

9 Yankees problems

Severino said he used different signals with backup catcher Austin Romine, who had caught Severino a lot in Sanchez’s absence. Sanchez said the pair had never used that particular set of signals before.

Brown said he didn’t know the true problems until he sat with Sanchez to watch the tape Friday. The Yankees were

“There were a couple of ones he got crossed up on, a couple others there he did not,” Brown said. “There was a slider over to his right side that Gary tried to pick and he didn’t pick. And there was a changeup he misread. He thought it was going to bounce but it stayed up. A little of both.”

Sanchez had said that though he and Severino hadn’t been on the same page, he should have made the stops either way.

Brown agreed, to an extent.

“There were a couple that, yeah, he said he should have made, and he should have made them,” Brown said. “Or he certainly could have made them. He’s made them in the past and he just didn’t make them in that first inning.

“But when you get crossed up, that’s a tough adjustment. You’re confident that whatever pitch is coming, and then something else comes — that’s a tough adjustment.”

Despite the frequency of Sanchez’s catching miscues, Brown said he believed the 25-year-old has looked much better defensively since returning from the DL about a week ago.

“Everything since he’s been back has been really good except for that first inning in Oakland,” Brown said. “I think as the game went on, he was back and he was catching with confidence again. He made some big blocks with guys on third base and deeper into the game. The receiving and everything after that first inning, blocking, was good.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.