BOSTON — Did Gary Sanchez pull an Enrico Pallazzo on Martin Maldonado and the Astros Sunday night at Fenway Park?
Hey, give the Yankees’ beleaguered catcher credit for a defensively sound, if brief, playoff run. After all the September hand-wringing in The Bronx about starting Sanchez behind the plate, other catchers have spit the bit. Here in American League Championship Series Game 2, it was Maldonado, acquired from the Angels during the season primarily for his defensive excellence, whose ineptitude cost his club.
An ugly seventh-inning sequence starring Maldonado — one that would have lowered the alert to DEFCON 2 had it occurred with Sanchez in The Bronx — allowed the Red Sox to score a critical insurance run in their 7-5 victory over Houston. The series is now tied at one game apiece, with Game 3 set for Tuesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.
With the Sawx holding a slim 5-4 lead, their leadoff hitter, Mookie Betts, started the seventh with a walk off Astros reliever Lance McCullers Jr. Without any of the next three batters putting the ball in play, Betts rounded the bases, Little League style: He went to second on a wild pitch that struck out Andrew Benintendi, then to third on a passed ball to J.D. Martinez (who struck out) and finally home on a passed ball during Xander Bogaerts’ plate appearance that ended with a walk. The Red Sox tacked on another run in the eighth.
“Those are tough in this type of series, these types of games. It’s a little uncharacteristic [of Maldonado],” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “Obviously, I brought McCullers in to try to keep it a one-run game with the way that this series can go. “So Lance threw a couple of nasty breaking balls. Looked like Martin either lost it in the people in center field or just got a little bit … I don’t want to say lax back there, but just had a tough time. And Mookie went around the bases, first the walk and then no ball in play and ends up scoring.”
Maldonado committed 13 passed balls in 117 games at catcher this season. For Sanchez, it was 18 passed balls in 76 games. Nevertheless, by all indications, Sanchez did not conk out Maldonado before the game, as Frank Drebin did to the opera singer Pallazzo in “The Naked Gun,” and assume his identity.
Besides, this affliction seems to be contagious this month. In National League Championship Series Game 1, Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal was charged with two passed balls, a fielding error and a catcher’s interference as the Dodgers fell to the Brewers.