Yankees: This Kyle Higashioka play saved Game 1 and embodied advantage over Gary Sanchez

Yankees backup catcher Kyle Higashioka saved Game 1 against the Rays and dominated in so many ways Gary Sanchez cannot.

It feels good, Yankees fans. Winning Game 1 of the ALDS against a team you went 2-8 against in the irregular season feels good. Getting contributions from batters 1-9 and some bonafide ninth-inning insurance feels good. Gerrit Cole, Chad Green and Zack Britton all doing their jobs with aplomb feels good.

And, yes, Kyle Higashioka guiding Cole throughout while simultaneously taking the game over, after we were told starting him was a disastrous decision that would lead to the Yankees’ downfall, also feels damn good.

For the second consecutive series opener, Higgy was behind the plate to create a SoCal battery with Cole, but once again, he did so much more than simply serve as a security blanket.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning of a one-run game, his dexterity may very well have saved the game, and Cole cited his amazing reaction time in the postgame media session. It’s even more ridiculous upon rewatch.

(Also, that’s a strike, but who’s counting? We’re counting.)

To go from a catcher whose agility you have to worry about at every turn to a catcher who can casually recover midway through a pitch’s trajectory is, needless to say, a significant weight off our back, and the back of our pitching staff.

I mean, for goodness sakes, just watch Cole’s pitch overlay and think about how in the hell Higashioka managed to make this look so seamless?

But that spectacular, game-saving play wasn’t all.

Brush the comfort factor aside. Think about the sheer number of things that Higashioka did on both sides of the ball, and then think about which of them you can honestly say, without fear, that Gary Sanchez would’ve also accomplished.

Higgy ambushed a Blake Snell fastball for a game-tying home run to left field immediately after his starter had surrendered the lead. He made a seamless, backhand scoop on Zack Britton’s turbo sinker in the eighth to keep Manuel Margot, the tying run, at first base. He started the ninth inning rally by shortening things up with a single, then barely scored from second on Aaron Hicks’ line-drive single (that’s an unadulterated “no” from Sanchez).

Even with the score at 9-3, he fouled off fastball after fastball and worked a walk from Shane McClanahan, rendered uncomfortable in his MLB debut. Higgy put up not one, but two at-bats in the ninth that proved his mettle.

At this point, we will see him behind the plate for every Gerrit Cole start. That much is assured. But with every pitch so vital and every margin for error shrunk, is there a chance he’s back there to guide Deivi Garcia, too?

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New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka comments about his time with the team ahead of his start in Game 2 of the Wild Card series.