Gary Sanchez
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Whatever bad karma Gary Sanchez has accrued by throwing out baserunners for the New York Yankees came due on Thursday.

Aaron Case

Gary Sanchez decided that Sep. 12 would be a great time to attempt his first stolen base of 2019. All the New York Yankees backstop has to show for it is an injured groin and a potential trip to the IL.

Sanchez told ESPN’s Marly Rivera that he “overstretched” his leg when he was gunned down to end the top of the third inning. He exited the game in the bottom of the fourth frame.

The Bombers are running away with the American League Eastern Division. So why would Sanchez think it’s a good idea to do a little racing of his own?

Well, according to the Kraken himself, he was just playing hard:

“It’s a bit frustrating,” he told Rivera. “I was trying to steal a base to help the team, giving it my all and hustling, and I made me an out and I got injured. It’s just so frustrating.”

Yankees fans chucking empties at their TVs as soon as they saw Sanchez take off for second base are likely even more perturbed than he is right now.

Sanchez has already missed significant time this season. He’s only played in 104 of the team’s 148 games.

Still, he’s amassed a career-high 34 home runs to go along with 77 RBIs. But now there’s just another caught stealing on the back of his baseball card.

The 26-year-old slugger has only tried six steals in 370 MLB games. If his latest injury is serious enough, he’ll also make his sixth-career IL appearance, per MLB.com.

That’s some perfectly awful symmetry for the New York Yankees and their fans as they look forward to October.


Freelance editor and writer, and full-time Yankees fan. Originally from Monticello, NY, but now lives in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.