Gary Sanchez missed his second straight game after being removed in the 14th inning of Friday night’s loss to the Orioles with a cramp in his right calf, but Aaron Boone said the catcher was available.

“I was trying as hard as I could to stay away from him having to go in the game and catch,’’ the manager said after the Yankees lost to Baltimore, 8-7, in 12 innings at the Stadium on Sunday. “I almost hit him in [Jace] Peterson’s last at-bat [in the 11th], but there was a base open and he would’ve been walked.”

Both Boone and Sanchez said his leg improved since Saturday and he expected to be ready for Tuesday’s series opener against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

“Being out of the lineup is not about my injury being more serious,” Sanchez said through an interpreter before the game. “I think the day off [Monday] and putting together a couple days off is smart. … I’m feeling better every day. [Saturday] it was a little tight, but the doctor told me that’s normal.”

Sanchez has gotten off to a dismal start to the season. He snapped an 0-for-17 stretch with a homer Wednesday, but had just one hit on the homestand.

In his absence, Austin Romine matched his career-high with three hits.

Tyler Wade, who had been out with flu-like symptoms, was also available off the bench.

Didi Gregorius was also held out of the starting lineup, with Boone saying the shortstop was “a little beat up”, but he pinch hit in the seventh and finished the game.

The Yankees should get more clarity soon about several injured players. Aaron Hicks (oblique) is scheduled to play his first rehab game with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Monday and could meet the team in Boston. He took batting practice outside for a second straight day and reported no issues.

Jacoby Ellsbury is expected to visit a hip specialist Monday for another evaluation of his injury that has slowed his return from the oblique injury he suffered during spring training. And Brandon Drury will undergo an assessment to try to determine what is causing the blurred vision and headaches that forced him from Friday’s game, symptoms which he said he’s been suffering from for years.

And Clint Frazier (concussion) has not been cleared to play in games yet, but Boone hoped that would be “around the corner.”

With Boone’s return to Boston two days away, the manager said he expected a different reaction from Red Sox fans than the one he’d gotten as an ESPN analyst.

Boone’s homer against Boston in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS “in a lot of ways probably does define my career to a lot of fans or people that don’t know me,” he said Sunday.

“I’ve been treated well there,” Boone said of his reception at Fenway. “Since they won as much as they have there since ’04, a lot of the ribbing I get up there is a little more good-natured. I’m sure now that I’m back in uniform, it won’t be as good natured.”