Yankees’ Gary Sanchez forced to leave with back spasms

The Yankees’ preemptive short-cut lineup had another hit on Friday night.

Gary Sanchez caught the first 5 innings of a 6-2 loss to the Red Sox before leaving the game with what the Yankees said was a spasm in central defence. He was hit by reserve Rob Brantly to start the first part of the sixth season.

“We’ll just see how he reacts on the night,” manager Aaron Boone said when asked about Sanchez’s readiness for Saturday. “His back started to buckle. It felt like it had cramped on him in the first innings. Then on the fifth day when he showed up, it was really locked into him. “

Sanchez did not show any outward signs of affecting him throughout the game. The catcher sat out Thursday’s opener after being “drowned” by a few tricks in Wednesday’s win over the Phillies, Boone said.

Before leaving the field on Friday, Sanchez was 0-1 with one attack, one walk and one run scored. He caught Gerrit Cole himself for a second straight start with Kyle Higashioka still on the injured COVID-19 list.

“He’s still being treated and I know he’s made some progress, but we’ll just see where we stay overnight and tomorrow,” Boone said.

“Hopefully he’s back there and it’s just something locked in for him, hopefully a short-term thing.”

Higashioka is scheduled to meet the team in Boston on Sunday to fly to Tampa for practice on Monday, where his condition will be reevaluated for the series against the Rays, which begins on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Brantly was tasked with catching the rest of Friday’s match and winning 0-3.

If Sanchez requests to be absent from the injury list, the Yankees will have to add a starter to the 40-man roster until Higashioka returns. Max McDowell, Kellin Deglan and Donny Sands are the main catchers on the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre roster.

Sanchez’s departure on Friday weakened a squad that had been hurt for a week. Since the All-Star break, the Yankees have played without warm-up Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela (COVID-19) and Luke Voit (knee).