NEW YORK -- The chant started up again in the seventh inning Saturday.

"Ga-ry San-chez! Ga-ry San-chez!"

Here's the thing: It was the top of the seventh inning. The New York Yankees weren't batting.

Their fans couldn't help themselves. That's how big a deal the rookie catcher has already become in three weeks as a major league regular.

That's how much Sanchez has single-handedly changed the atmosphere at Yankee Stadium, from the stands right down to the home clubhouse.

"Every time he comes to the plate, we feel like something is going to happen -- in a good way," Starlin Castro said.

Good things are happening for Castro, too, who had a four-hit day in the Yankees' 13-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Various Yankees other than Sanchez are hitting now, which is how they put together back-to-back double-digit showings for the first time this season and why they have four straight wins for the second time this month but just the fifth time this year.

It all seems to revolve around the guy who has become the every-day No. 3 hitter in the Yankees' lineup, the youngest Yankee to hit there regularly since Don Mattingly in 1984. And Sanchez got his first Yankee Stadium curtain call after his fourth-inning home run on Saturday.

"A very exciting moment," Sanchez said.

Sanchez, 23, has made history as the first major leaguer ever with 11 home runs in the first 23 games of his career. But he's also making the Yankees better in a way that goes beyond those 11 home runs and his 1.367 OPS.

"I can see why they're excited," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Saturday morning. "They've got a nice energy back in them."

The Orioles have their own issues after a second straight starting pitcher departed before the end of the fifth inning. Dylan Bundy gave up Sanchez's two-strike, opposite-field home run in the fourth, allowing seven hits and five runs in four innings.

The Orioles are slumping, letting other teams into the race for the second wild-card spot in the American League. And yes, that includes the Yankees, who are now just 2 1/2 games behind Baltimore -- although with two other teams in between them.

The Yankees say they believe they can win, and with each home run Sanchez hits, it's getting a little easier to believe in them. They had issues Saturday, with starter Chad Green giving up three home runs (two to Chris Davis) and not making it out of the fifth, but the problems were washed away by all the Yankees' hits (18 of them) and all the adulation for Sanchez.

"He seems to be hitting everything," said manager Joe Girardi, who also praised Sanchez for taking two walks.

"He's been such a big addition," said Brian McCann, who had three hits and two RBIs and scored two runs as the designated hitter, having lost the catching job to the kid everyone is talking about.

Added Green: "We're cheering along with [the fans]. It's crazy what he's doing."

Sanchez still seems the least affected of any of them. He said he hasn't prepared any differently than he did in the minor leagues, even though the numbers show 11 homers in 80 major league at-bats after 10 homers in 284 minor league at-bats this season.

He said he wasn't aware of the history, of no one hitting 11 home runs in his first 23 career games, and of no American League rookie since Mark McGwire in 1987 hitting as many as 11 home runs in a month.

Sanchez surely can't continue at this pace, but for now the story keeps getting better.

Before Saturday, some scouts were saying Sanchez's home runs were coming on mistake pitches, and noting that he hadn't connected on a fastball harder than 91 mph. Forget that thought, because it was a 94 mph fastball from Bundy that he hit into the right-center field seats.

Sanchez circled the bases and went back to the dugout, but the fans weren't going to let him leave it at that. They called out his name, and before long Sanchez's teammates let him know it was a curtain call they were after.

He obliged.

"It's very exciting to hear your name," he said through an interpreter.

There haven't been many of those at Yankee Stadium this year, and there weren't supposed to be many after the late-July sell-off that cost the Yankees the guy who was then their leading power threat (Carlos Beltran) and the guy who was their most exciting player (Aroldis Chapman).

Now, Sanchez is all that and more. If you don't believe it, just listen.

You'll hear them chanting his name.