Tampa Bay Rays 3 — New York Yankees 9
The Yankees as a whole struggled early on but a second time around proved different for Masahiro Tanaka and the offense.
Over Tanaka’s young major league career, he has had a theme of surrendering at least one home run in each start, today would not be much different. In the first inning, Desmond Jennings would hit his second home run in as many games and gave the Rays the early lead. Three singles in the second inning would give the Rays a two-run lead while the Yankees offense started out very cold. Tanaka would also give up a second home run when Wil Myers led off the fourth inning with a home run to give the Rays a three-run lead.
For the Rays, Jake Odorizzi started and through the first three innings he was untouchable, striking out three and getting all nine batters out with ease. That’s one time through the order. Opponents hit under .200 against him the first time seeing him. The second time? Opponents hit over .400. You can see where this is going.
Leading off the fourth inning, Jacoby Ellsbury would hit a line drive to left field for the first hit of the game. Brett Gardner would ground into a force out at second when Odorizzi tried to start a double play but they could only get one out. Mark Teixeira‘s hot bat would keep getting hotter as he deposited his fourth home run in five games, a two-run home run to cut the deficit in half.
In the fifth inning, a pair of doubles wrapped around a walk tied the game as Jacoby Ellsbury continues to be one of the best all-around talents in pinstripes this year. With the game tied, Tanaka would turn his game around and keep the game tied, retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced.
In seven innings, Masahiro Tanaka allowed three runs on eight hits while striking out five and walking none. He started out very cold but settled down later as the offense woke up.
In the sixth inning, Kelly Johnson made Tanaka eligible for the win. A leadoff home run off of reliever Josh Lueke was his fourth of the season. The Yankees would add insurance runs in the seventh inning on three singles by Ellsbury, Gardner and Teixeira. Soriano would hit a sacrifice fly and the lead increased to three.
Ichiro Suzuki and Brett Gardner would bring home two more runs and the Yankees had a solid 9-3 lead. The bullpen would need just Dellin Betances and Preston Claiborne to backup the start of Tanaka’s and the game was over. In Betances’ inning of work, he struck out two. He now has 28 strikeouts in 15.2 innings pitched. That’s a K/9 over 16. Wow.
In addition, Masahiro Tanaka is now undefeated in his last 28 decisions.
Win – Masahiro Tanaka (4-0)
Loss – Josh Lueke (0-2)
Notables
Rays
*Desmond Jennings – 1 for 4, R, Solo Home Run (4) in the 1st, RBI (10)
*Wil Myers – 1 for 4, R, Solo Home Run (3) in the 4th, RBI (14)
Yankees
*Mark Teixeira – 2 for 4, R, BB, 2-Run Home Run (5) in the 4th, 3 RBI (10)
*Kelly Johnson – 1 for 3, R, BB, Solo Home Run (4) in the 6th, RBI (9)
Current Yankees Record: 16-13
