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Yankees vs Angels (4/27/14)

Baltimore Orioles v New York Yankees

Masahiro Tanaka (3-0,2.15 ERA) gets the rubber match against Garrett Richards (2-0, 2.52 ERA) and the Angels on Sunday Night Baseball. Tanaka has lived up to all the offseason hype so far. His last time out against the Red Sox was another strong outing. He allowed just two solo homers over 7 1/3 innings at Fenway with just seven hits and picked up his third win.

Tanaka has been thrown into the fire and hasn’t gotten a single burn. In his first few games in the majors he has gone up against the likes of Joey Bautista, Dustin Pedroia, Chris Davis and David Ortiz. Sunday night he will be introduced to another force, Mike Trout. Coming along will be Albert Pujols and Raul Ibanez and it’s all still new to him. “I’ve been playing in Japan for the past seven years, so to be honest with you, I’m not really familiar with basically any of the batters here,” Tanaka said through a translator on Saturday. “I can tell that they’re really good batters, but the truth is, I haven’t had the chance to face them yet, so it’s hard to make any type of assessment. Looking at tape and film, yeah, they’re really good.”

Richards has been the Angels’ best pitcher so far this season. He has given up just seven runs in 25 innings, while striking out 24 and walking 14. He might be developing into one of the best young arms in baseball. The 25 year old established himself down the stretch last season, with a 3.72 ERA in 13 starts. “He’s very confident right now,” Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher said, “and when you’re confident like that, you want to ride it out as long as you can.”

 

 

Notes on the game

Opponents are batting .314 against Tanaka the first time through the lineup, then just .149 after that.

Derek Jeter has hit safely in 16 of his 19 games this season. His batting average is .292.

The Yankees have beaten the Angels in 21 of the last 29 games at the new Yankee Stadium (including the playoffs).

Richards has a 5.54 ERA in two career starts at Yankee Stadium. Last season he pitched eight innings of two run ball.

 

First pitch at 8:05 PM on ESPN