Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Tanaka Collects 11th Win As Yankees Beat Blue Jays, 3-1

After watching him give up a home run to Jose Reyes on the contest's first pitch, you could make the argument that tonight wasn't Masahiro Tanaka's night.

The Yankees' ace, who tossed a complete game in his last outing in Seattle, didn't look at all like himself in the first inning, surrendering a total of three hits.

Eventually, though, the rookie would bounce back, striking out 10 over a solid six innings as the Yanks beat the Blue Jays 3-1.

On the evening, Tanaka actually threw 104 pitches, something outshined by the rest of his numbers, as just one of the final 10 men he faced reached. 

The quality start, #19's third of 6 frames, was Tanaka's 14th consecutive to start the year, lowering his AL-best ERA to 1.99.

Still, the Bombers' offense didn't pick him up for a while, failing to record a hit until Kelly Johnson (went 2-for-3 starting in place of Yangervis Solarte) doubled in the bottom of the third.

Immediately following that knock was a Brett Gardner home run off the right field foul pole (his sixth of the year), giving the Yankees a lead they probably didn't deserve.

Be that as it may, the slim advantage was enough after a Mark Teixeira RBI Single in the fifth, as Dellin Betances threw a perfect two innings of relief and David Robertson closed it out in the ninth for his 17th save of the year. 

In that six-out performance, Betances faced the Blue Jays' 9-5 hitters, impressively retiring each while recording three strikeouts. 

With that accomplishment, the youngster's ERA dropped to 1.55, probably helping his chances of making the All-Star Game. 

As for Robertson, his inning wasn't nearly as pretty, with the four men he faced seeing a combined 26 pitches, a triple from Toronto Second Basemen Munenori Kawasaki included. 

Game Thread: Yankees vs. Blue Jays 6/17


The New York Yankees are finally off their West Coast road trip and back home in the Bronx hosting the team their chasing in the AL East, the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound, Happy Tanaka Day, to face off with the Blue Jays top prospects Marcus Stroman. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on MY9, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with WFAN.

It's not too late to get your Yankees tickets RIGHT HERE on the blog for tonight's game and every game this weekend in the Bronx. You can also converse with us on Twitter by following @GreedyStripes or find us on Facebook. Not into social media? No problem! Just drop us a line in the comments section of the site and let's talk some Yankees baseball.

Enjoy the rest of your night Yankees family and enjoy the game.


SabathiaReturned To The Mound, Pineda To Play Catch

CC Sabathia has returned to the mound for the first time in over a month since being shut down with a degenerative knee condition.

Pineda was shut down after a setback while rehabbing a teres major muscle in his back but is expected to play catch Saturday according to Ms. Marakovits.

HOPE Week: Career Gear


Derek Jeter, Jacoby Ellsbury, Hiroki Kuroda, Brian Roberts, and Alfonso Soriano helped the New York Yankees recognize an organization called Career Gear today as a part of HOPE Week. The honorees were helped in getting fitted for a suit by DKNY. Gary Field, the Executive Director and Founder of the organization, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before tonight's game.

HERE is a little write up about what Career Gear is and how they help the New York community:

Career Gear provides professional clothing, mentoring and life-skills to help men in poverty become stronger contributors to their families and communities.

The Last Time The Blue Jays Faced Masahiro Tanaka


It looked a little something like this..... and this was before he was settled in and as comfortable as he seems today. Shouldn't be fun for Blue Jays fans tonight, we hope!

Preview: New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays 6/17


The New York Yankees will begin a three game set tonight with the team they are chasing in the American League East division when they host the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound to face off with Marcus Stroman for the Blue Jays. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the MY9, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman with WFAN.

Tanaka will face a major league team for a second time for the first time in his career tonight when he faces the Toronto Blue Jays, the team he made his major league debut against. Tanaka is coming off yet another dominating performance for the Yankees and a complete game win over the Seattle Mariners. Tanaka has won four games in a row since losing his first start of his big league career.

Stroman has only made three starts this season after being called up from Triple-A and all of them have been quality starts. Stroman has only walked two batters in his three starts across 18 innings but does have one loss to show for it against the Minnesota Twins. The Blue Jays have struggled to score in Stroman's starts, a trend I hope continues tonight.

Get your Yankees tickets for Tanaka Day right HERE on the blog with Ticket Monster. TM offers cheap tickets with no additional fees or shipping costs, a great deal for the every day fan. 

Go Yankees!!

Yankees Activate Cervelli From 60-Day DL; Send Murphy to Triple-A

When the Yankees decided to call up John Ryan Murphy back in April, many people questioned the move. 

While Murphy did have some big league experience at the time, fellow catching prospect Austin Romine undeniably had more, making him the more appealing replacement.

While that may still be true, Murphy ended up surprising us all backing up Brian McCann, hitting a solid .286 (18-for-63) with 8 RBIs in a journey that ended today, as the youngster was sent back down to Triple-A to make room for the man he replaced: Francisco Cervelli.

Cervelli, as you may remember, went down with a hamstring injury way back on April 13, after going just 3-for-16 in five games.

On the play he got hurt, the longtime Yanks' catcher actually made a difference, beating out a double play and allowing another run to score.

At that point, the Bombers were up 3-1 on the Red Sox, helping them eventually win 3-2.

Granted, the ball wasn't necessarily hit hard, but considering that most guys probably wouldn't even bother trying to be safe in that kind of situation Cervelli's return has got to be exciting for Joe Girardi, as he's faster and better defensively than his still-good predecessor. 

Remembering Tony Gwynn In The 1998 World Series


As many of you know, and if you haven't I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Tony Gwynn passed away at age 54 yesterday after losing his battle with cancer. Gwynn left behind his wife and two children, one of them currently a player for the Philadelphia Phillies Tony Jr. While I realize this is a New York Yankees blog we have the utmost respect for all ambassadors of the game, especially one who played the game like Gwynn. Gwynn and the Padres did not play much against the New York Yankees due to limited interleague play back in his prime but the two teams did meet up in the 1998 World Series. Allow me to look back just for a second to that World Series and Gwynn specifically.

Gwynn's Padres were 98-64 heading into the playoffs and easily ran though the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros onto the way to the World Series facing off with the New York Yankees. As we all know the Yankees ended up sweeping the Padres in four games and I remember it well sitting on my couch with my broom in hand. Gwynn did everything he could in the series as "Mr. Padre" finished with a .500 average.

Gwynn hit a home run off David Wells in Game One in Yankee Stadium which Gwynn later called his favorite moment and the highlight of his career. Gwynn has 8 hits in 16 at bats and took one walk to finish with a triple slash of .500/.529/.688. Gwynn had three RBI's and the homer off Boomer Wells and an amazing zero strikeouts.

While this wasn't Gwynn's first World Series, his Padres made it to the Fall Classic in 1984 only to lose to the Detroit Tigers, but this was easily the most memorable. Gwynn was the Padres this season and will always be Mr. Padre.

Rest in Peace once again to Tony Gwynn.

Can't Predict Baseball: A Yankee & A Met


On this day in 1962 Gene Woodling becomes the first major league player to play for both of New York's teams, the Yankees and the Mets. The 38 year old outfielder would go 2-4 scoring two runs for New York's National League expansion team in an 8-7 loss to the Chicago Cubs at the Polo Grounds.

Speaking of the Yankees and this day in history in 1962 the Yankees would lose their third and fourth games of the series in a double header with the Cleveland Indians to get swept by the Tribe. In the second inning of Game 1 the Indians Jerry Kindall, Bubba Phillips, and Jim Mahoney hit three consecutive home runs to give Dick Donovan his 10th win of the season. The Cleveland crowd, the largest Indians crows in eight seasons, would enjoy watching the Indians sweep the Bronx Bombers.

Quick Hit: Never Another Like Tony Gwynn


There will never be another player to play this great game of baseball like Tony Gwynn. Gwynn had a plethora of career milestones, zero reported trouble both inside and outside the clubhouse, and never complained even when battling cancer. Gwynn was a special kind of player that I don't think we will ever see again.

Gwynn had 3,000 hits, led the league in hitting eight times, hit over .300 19 of his 20 seasons in the big leagues and only hit .289 in his rookie campaign, had over 200 hits five times in his career and hit 197 two other times, surprisingly had seasons in which he stole 33, 37, 56, and 40 bases, had a career high 40 strike outs for a single season, was a 15 time All Star and garnered MVP votes in 12 different seasons. Gwynn spent his entire career with the San Diego Padres.

Gwynn surprisingly only had 100 plus RBI's once in his career, only hit double digit home runs in five seasons and 135 total in 20 seasons, and never made more than $6.3 million in a single season. We may never see another Tony Gwynn and frankly that's not a bad thing, I'd hate for anyone to take away from what a great man and even better ballplayer he truly was.

This Day In New York Yankees History 6/17


On this day in 1941 Joe DiMaggio extends his hitting streak to 30 consecutive games with a little help from a bad hop off Luke Appling's shoulder. DiMaggio would break the team's record for hits in consecutive games with the bit of luck passing Roger Peckinpaugh in 1919 and Earle Combs in 1931. The Yankees would lose the game 8-7 to the Chicago White Sox.


On this day in 1978 Louisiana Lightning and Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry started a new tradition at Yankee Stadium. Guidry would strike out 15 Angels in six innings and finish the game with 18 K's to establish a new American League record for southpaws in the game. The Yankee Stadium crows would begin to clap each time Guidry got two strikes on a batter. This is also where Guidry got his nickname Louisiana Lightning from when called that by television announcer Phil Rizzuto.