Joe Girardi: Gary Sanchez is up to challenge

Gary Sanchez led the American League with 16 passed balls, and the Yankees were third in the AL in wild pitches, a stat that reflects poorly on the catcher.

But Joe Girardi said he has no worries about his second-year catcher going into Tuesday’s wild-card game.

“I was just talking to Tony Pena,” Girardi said of the former big leaguer who coaches first for the Yankees and works with their catchers. “Sometimes we focus on the one ball that he misses, but we don’t focus on the 10 that he blocked, and are those are pretty good odds in a sense. And the things that he’s able to control, like the running game . . . there’s a lot of things he does really, really well. I think he’ll handle the challenge tomorrow night really well.”

Sanchez, 24, slashed .278/.345/.531 with 33 homers and 90 RBI this season in just 122 games as he missed a month early on this season with a biceps injury.

“I mean, for a catcher, that’s really, really good,” Girardi said.

Nice number

RF Aaron Judge sounded as proud, if not more, of the number of games he played this season (155) as he did with some of the numbers that have gotten him the most attention, such as 52 (his home run total), 114 (RBI) or 127 (walks).

“In 2016 my season ended early with an oblique injury and one of my goals (in 2017) was I wanted to be a consistent part of this lineup,” Judge said. “I’m excited I was able to play 155 games, to be out there with my team in the good times and the bad times.”

Roster doings

As expected, Girardi said the club will carry 10 pitchers and 15 position players on their 25-man wild-card game roster, though he didn’t offer any specifics. The roster doesn’t need to be submitted to MLB until 10 a.m. Tuesday.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.