VIDEO: Yankees Take Early Lead on Gary Sanchez's 3-Run Bomb off Blake Snell
By Sean Facey
The Kraken strikes early! With nobody out in the bottom of the first inning, Gary Sanchez strengthened his case to be the starting AL catcher in the All-Star Game by taking Tampa Bay Rays starter Blake Snell deep to give the Yankees a fast 3-0 lead.
Three-run homer, Gary Sanchez. #Yankees up 3-0 in the 1st. Blake Snell entered today with a 4.97 ERA in nine career stats at Yankee Stadium. That number just went up. pic.twitter.com/a489BxDbeM
— Tom Hanslin (@TomHanslin) June 19, 2019
The line drive blast to the opposite field was his 21st home run of the season, putting him one behind teammate Edwin Encarnacion for the AL lead.
It was the fourth home run of Sanchez's career off of the 2018 AL Cy Young winner, and it pushed his total for runs batted in on the season up to 48.