Yankees Game 26: Masahiro Tanaka twirls gem in duel but team loses in extras

Masahiro Tanaka pitches 8 scoreless but a 10th inning run walked-off on the Yankees.

New York Yankees 0 – Baltimore Orioles 1 (10 innings)

To wrap up the road trip, the Yankees turned to Masahiro Tanaka.

Masahiro Tanaka and the Orioles' Kevin Gausman went inning-for-inning in tonight's series finale. Through the first three innings, Tanaka allowed three hits while Gausman allowed one but they were all stranded.

In the fourth inning, the Yankees got a leadoff double from Starlin Castro. On a fly out to center field, Castro advanced to third to setup an ideal scoring opportunity. Mark Teixeira grounded out to the first baseman, holding Castro at third. The runner remained stranded when Carlos Beltran popped out to end the inning.

During the fourth inning, manager Joe Girardi noticed that Gausman was noticeably committing a balk as he pitched from the full stretch. Heated by the miss from third base umpire Chris Guccione, Girardi was ejected from the game.

The game remained scoreless through nine innings thanks to a horrendous mental error in the top of the ninth and a marvelous defensive gem in the bottom of the ninth.

With two outs in the ninth inning, Starlin Castro hit a single. Bringing in closer Zach Britton, on a pitch to Brian McCann, Castro was caught too far off of second base and was picked off by catcher Matt Wieters to end the inning in shocking fashion.

In eight scoreless innings, Masahiro Tanaka allowed five hits and one walk while striking out seven. He threw 102 pitches in easily, one of the better starts of the season for the Yankees.

Dellin Betances came on for the ninth inning and started the inning with a strikeout. Mark Trumbo was walked and replaced with pinch runner Joey Rickard but it was an irrelevant move when Matt Wieters hit a deep fly to right field. At the wall, right fielder Dustin Ackley made a leaping grab to make the first out just before the ball hit the high wall in right and on a throw to first base, completed a remarkable double play.

On to extra innings!

The Yankees got a leadoff walk from Brian McCann who was pinch-run for by Brett Gardner. Unfortunately, the base runner was irrelevant as Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran and Dustin Ackley went down on strikes to strand Gardner.

In the bottom half of the 10th inning, reliever Johnny Barbato started by giving up an infield single to Hyun Soo Kim. After another single by Jonathan Schoop put runners on the corners, Kim was pinch-run for with Nolan Reimold. Closer Andrew Miller came on with no out and the infield in but a fly ball to center field by Pedro Alvarez was deep enough to score Reimold and defeat the Yankees in walk-off fashion.

The heartbreaking loss was the seventh loss in the last eight games for the Yankees.

Win – Zach Britton (1-0)

Loss – Johnny Barbato (1-2)

Notables

Yankees

*Starlin Castro – 2 for 4, 2B

*Aaron Hicks – 1 for 3

Orioles

*Pedro Alvarez – Walk-off sacrifice fly, RBI (4)

*Jonathan Schoop – 2 for 4

Current Yankees Record: 9-17