Blue Jays’ Sanchez owns up to mistakes: ‘I know I need to improve’

The outfielder failed to make plays on two catchable flyballs as the Toronto Blue Jays lost 7-6 to the Tampa Bay Rays — a loss that's tough to swallow as the formerly last-place team makes a legitimate push for the post-season.

Sanchez left the clubhouse on Wednesday without speaking to reporters, but ahead of Thursday's rubber match in Tampa (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+ at 1:10 p.m. ET), he owned up to his defensive blunders and pledged to be better going forward.

"I know I need to improve my defence, because I don't usually play left field," Sanchez told reporters on Thursday. "I'm going to make the adjustment because I'm athletic enough to play left field. I know I'm going to be there, and the next time I'm going to be better."

Sanchez explained that the first flyball he missed passed over a catwalk at Tropicana Field and he lost sight of it, believing it was going foul before realizing too late that it would drop fair.

The second dropped flyball — a Richie Palacios pop-up in the fourth inning with the bases loaded that would score two runs — Sanchez admitted that he lost that one in the lights, and believed shortstop Andres Gimenez would make a play on it.

"I don't want to make an excuse," Sanchez said. "That's a ball I need to catch.

"I'm sure it's a play he would have like to have made," manager John Schneider told reporters after the game Wednesday. "You're sitting there, two outs with (Taylor) Walls up in a 2-1 game, so you take your chances. But it looked like he kind of didn't see it, or saw it then didn't see it."

Schneider held Sanchez out of the lineup for Thursday's series finale, giving Daz Cameron, who signed a minor-league contract with the Blue Jays in July, some reps in left field.