J.C. Escarra shoulders burden for costly Yankees catchers interference

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.TORONTO — Yankees catchers are among the best in the game at stealing strikes and framing pitches.But the potential downside of that skill came back to bite them Tuesday for a second straight game as J.C.

Escarra’s catcher’s interference loomed large in a 12-5 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.With runners on first and second and one out in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh, Luke Weaver thought he had a called third strike on Addison Barger.But as the pinch hitter checked his swing on a full count, his bat hit Escarra’s glove, which led the Blue Jays to call for a challenge that they won to load the bases in what became a five-run rally.“He wasn’t going to swing, but at the end of the day, I shouldn’t have been too close like that,” Escarra said.

“Going forward, I’ve really got to make it a priority to not get too deep in there.”To help frame pitches, Escarra — starting a second straight game for Austin Wells as he recovered from invasive testing for a lack of circulation in his finger — gets close to the plate and tries to catch the ball before it gets too deep.But that can sometimes lead to interfering with swings, which he did on Tuesday for the third time this season, tying him for the major league lead.“We’re incredibly diligent on trying to eliminate that as much as possible,” manager Aaron Boone said.

“It is something we lean into every hitter — who are we vulnerable with, who are we not — and we do that accordingly with our catchers.… It’s something we continue to lean into and try to eliminate as much as we can while also trying to leverage the strike zone as much as we can.”That said, the Yankees had something of a bone to pick on this one because it came on a check swing.

Barger was not actually offering on the pitch, but hit Escarra’s glove, awarding him ...