SEATTLE -- Lou Gehrig didn't do it. Joe DiMaggio didn't do it. Mickey Mantle didn't do it.
New York Yankees rookie catcher Gary Sanchez has hit eight home runs in his first 19 games, becoming the first player in franchise history to hit so many long balls so quickly.
Sanchez added two more home runs Monday night in a 7-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field. Sanchez hit a solo shot in the first inning and a two-run job in the sixth.
"It's very tough when you can put on the board a couple of runs and get to hit two home runs and all that, but the bottom line is you don't win the game," Sanchez said through a translator.
Earlier on Monday, Sanchez, 23, was named the American League Player of the Week, becoming the first Yankees catcher to win the honor since Thurman Munson in 1976. Sanchez has unseated seven-time All-Star Brian McCann as the Yankees' everyday catcher.
"I feel really good out there in the box, and the work I've been doing is getting good results, and it's making me feel comfortable," Sanchez said.
With six homers in his first 18 games before Monday, Sanchez already had tied Kevin Maas and Shelley Duncan as the only ever to accomplish the feat.
The Yankees signed Sanchez out of the Dominican Republic for a $3 million signing bonus when he was 16.