Miami Marlins 0 — New York Yankees 3
The regular season is coming quickly and starting pitchers begin to prepare for their day in the schedule. Today’s starting pitcher will be tabbed with the second game of the season. Hiroki Kuroda started tonight’s game against the Miami Marlins. Kuroda allowed a leadoff single to start the game but would proceed to strikeout the next three batters he faced. Kuroda allowed a hit in each inning of his start tonight but stranded the baserunners as he prepares for the season.
In three scoreless innings, Hiroki Kuroda allowed three hits while walking none and striking out four.
Through tonight’s game, it would seem the Yankees hitters see Marlins pitchers in their nightmares. Starting pitcher Kevin Slowey would pitch three perfect innings with two strikeouts. The game would play out a little different than a recent Panama night. In the fourth inning, reliever Carlos Marmol entered the game and the defense was as erratic as Marmol has been with the strike zone. Brett Gardner opened the fourth inning with a walk. He would steal second and Derek Jeter would walk to put runners on first and second. Carlos Beltran would strike out and during Mark Teixeira‘s at-bat, Brett Gardner would continue running rampant on the Marlins. He stole third base and former Yankee Casey McGehee would commit an error at third allowing Jeter to advance to second base. Teixeira would walk to load the bases Brian McCann would ground out to bring home the Yankees first run. On a two errors and two walks, the Yankees scored. They didn’t have a hit but they did have the lead.
In the eighth inning, the Yankees prevented recent history from repeating itself, Kelly Johnson hit a double off of reliever Steve Cishek. Brian Roberts would follow with a run-scoring single to make it a two-run game. In reality, two runs was more than enough with who followed the veteran Kuroda.
Following Kuroda’s three scoreless, fellow countryman Masahiro Tanaka took to the mound for a relief appearance, his final one before the season. He would come in and dominate the Marlins by striking out the side, all swinging to end the inning. Tanaka would strike out one in the fifth and two in the sixth. He would strike out two more in the seventh inning. He would strike out one more in the eighth and the ninth innings too.
In case you didn’t see a theme, Tanaka struck out a lot. In six innings, Masahiro Tanaka struck out 10 Marlins without allowing a run or a walk and allowing just three hits.Bring on the regular season.
