Yankees Game 11: Tanaka, offense snap skids to avoid sweep

Behind Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees prevent the sweep with timely hitting, baserunning and a dominant bullpen.

Seattle Mariners 3 – New York Yankees 4

In a dreadful four-game losing streak, the Yankees turned to Masahiro Tanaka to prevent the sweep.

In the first inning against Masahiro Tanaka, it looked like a bad day when three of the first four batters reached on soft base hits, that barely left the infield. A force out at second allowed the first Mariners run to score, giving them a 1-0 lead but Tanaka minimized the difficult first inning to the one run.

In the first inning against Tanaka's former teammate from Japan Hisashi Iwakuma, the Yankees were held out of the scoreboard in the first inning, but the second inning featured a cold bat needing to warm up.

In an 0-for-19 skid, Alex Rodriguez found himself batting sixth in the order today and came up in the second inning after Brian McCann was hit by a pitch. On the first-pitch fastball from Iwakuma, Alex Rodriguez put the Yankees ahead with a two-run home run to deep left field, his second of the year.

In the third inning, the Yankees snapped another skid that was team-wide. After a leadoff single by Jacoby Ellsbury, the Yankees center fielder stole second base and advanced to third on the throwing error by the catcher. With runners in scoring position, the Yankees entered 0-for-26 but Brett Gardner's second hit of the day cleared that when he went to left center for a ground-rule double, scoring Ellsbury and giving the Yankees a two-run lead.

The Mariners reached base in the fourth inning after nine consecutive batters were retired thanks to a rare error by Mark Teixeira. Catcher Steve Clevenger brought the Mariners within one with a run-scoring single and tied the game. In the fifth inning, Nori Aoki reached base due to an ill-timed dive by Jacoby Ellsbury that allowed the ball roll to the wall and Aoki to easily reach third base for a one-out triple. He scored on a single but Tanaka continued minimizing the damage with a double play.

The Yankees responded to the tie game in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Brett Gardner got on base with his third hit of the game. Carlos Beltran followed with a sharp single to put runners on the corners and a barely wild pitch, Gardner raced home and put the Yankees ahead with a headfirst slide.

Masahiro Tanaka followed with two shut down innings, the first Yankees starting pitcher to go seven innings this season. In seven innings, Masahiro Tanaka allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits without a walk and six strikeouts. Tanaka generated 12 ground outs in today's very solid outing.

After seven innings, the Yankees called upon the dynamic 1-2 punch. In the eight inning, Dellin Betances faced the top of the Mariners order. The Mariners batters looked outmatched as Betances struck out all three, two swinging at the breaking ball and Robinson Cano caught looking. For the ninth inning, closer Andrew Miller entered and struck out all three too, snapping the losing skid in resounding fashion.

In the young season, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller have combined to face record 33 outs, 27 have struck out.

Win – Masahiro Tanaka (1-0)

Loss – Hisashi Iwakuma (0-2)

Save – Andrew Miller (3)

Notables

Mariners

*Seth Smith – 2 for 4, R, RBI (4)

*Steve Clevenger – 1 for 3, RBI (1)

Yankees

*Brett Gardner – 3 for 4, R, 2B, RBI (2)

*Alex Rodriguez – 1 for 4, R, Two-run home run (2) in the 2nd, 2 RBI (4)

Current Yankees Record: 5-6