NEW YORK -- Gary Sanchez’s latest home run landed him in the same breath as Mickey Mantle.

When Sanchez clubbed a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth inning during the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, it marked his 17th home run of the season, coming in his 37th game played.

The blast tied a Yankees record for fewest games needed to reach 17 home runs in a season, with Sanchez joining Mantle in the team record books. Mantle hit 17 home runs in his first 37 games in 1956, and he finished that campaign with 52 home runs — the second-highest total of his career behind the 54 he hit in 1961.

“It’s an honor for me to get to records like that and to have my name associated with those guys,” Sanchez said. “But I’m trying to keep things simple. Look for something in the zone and try to swing hard.”

Sanchez missed time in April due to a left calf strain, and coupling that with his routine days off as a catcher, he has played in only 37 of the Yankees’ 54 games this season.

Sanchez is currently averaging one home run per every 8.24 at bats, well ahead of the 10.05 at bats per home run he had during his breakout rookie season in 2016, where he finished with 20 home runs in 201 at bats.

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On top of that, Sanchez is just one home run shy of matching his 2018 total of 18 home runs. Coming off that down year where he hit just .186 over 323 at bats, Sanchez pointed to one reason why he’s been able to rebound in 2019.

“No. 1 is my health. That’s the No. 1 reason, I’m healthy,” Sanchez said. “At the plate, I’m working hard, I’m not swinging at bad pitches, but that’s it. Keep doing things simple at the plate. Pitchers can execute really good pitches, and I’m just trying to stay away from those and focusing on the ones in the zone.”

While Sanchez did connect on the fourth-inning home run, he did strike out in two of his other three at bats on Tuesday, though a couple questionable calls contributed to those Ks.

In his first at bat, Sanchez took a called strike three on a high curveball that appeared to finish off the outside corner.

During a sixth-inning strike out, a low 2-1 changeup was called a strike, turning a potential 3-1 count into a 2-2 count. Sanchez’s was fooled on a fastball as he went down swinging on the next pitch.

Batters on both the Yankees and Padres had some gripes about the strike zone of home plate umpire Eric Cooper on Tuesday, but Sanchez chalked it up to part of the game.

“I think it happened all night, even going back to my first at bat," Sanchez said. “It was a curveball high and outside. But nobody’s perfect. (The umpire’s) going to miss pitches too. Just hoping that he makes the adjustments.”

Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.