Wednesday, July 27, 2016

McCullers, Astros Prevent Yankees Sweep And Ability to Gain Ground In WC/AL East Races

Tonight, the New York Yankees were unable to complete the sweep of the Houston Astros, losing the final game of the three-game set. Ace Masahiro Tanaka took the mound for the Yanks, falling to 7-3 while enlarging his ERA to 3.16 in his less-than-ace-like performance tonight. Son of former Yankee Lance McCullers(89'-90') and the youngest starting pitcher in baseball at age 22, Lance McCullers Jr. took the ball for Houston and continued his string of strikeout dominance, tying a season high in K's(10) in route to his sixth victory of the season.

Tanaka really didn't have his good stuff tonight, as was evidenced by the Astros hitting the boards first beginning in the bottom of the second. Preston Tucker and rookie Alex Bregman walked with one out. Tucker then scored when the next batter Carlos Gomez lined a single up the middle that was almost caught by both Tanaka and Gregorius but snuck into centerfield, giving the Astros a 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless top half, Houston really started to put it on Tanaka in the bottom of the third. Hot hitting Marvin Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to 11 games by leading off the frame with a single, advancing to second base on a Jose Altuve ground out. After a Tanaka wild pitch moved Gonzalez to third-base, Carlos Correa smacked a single to left that scored Gonzales and extended the Astros lead to 2-0. The next man up Colby Rasmus broke an 0-29 slide by smashing a hanging Tanaka splitter into the seats in right that made it a 4-0 contest.

Brian McCann responded to Rasmus's homer by launching a tremendous solo shot to dead center off young McCullers in the top of the fourth, making it a 4-1 ball game. Outside of that long ball, McCullers managed to strike out 10 batters in the first five frames of the night.

Masahiro Tanaka's night came to an end after five innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out four. Adam Warren made his return in pinstripes in relief of Tanaka in the bottom of the sixth, tossing a scoreless frame in is re-debut. According to a story by John Sterling on the radio broadcast of the game, Warren was really pissed when New York moved him to Chicago earlier in the year, taking all of his Yankee memorabilia and throwing it into storage. Unlike Buck Showalter, who burned 17 years worth of memorabilia when he learned he was fired in 1995. Warren promptly removed it from storage and placed it back in it's rightful spot after receiving the news Monday that he would once again be a Yankee.

No more runs were scored as Will Harriscame on to close the ball game out, striking out Starlin Castro to end the ball game. The Yankees as a team set a season-high in strikeouts by fanning 15 times in 27 outs this evening. The loss was especially crucial, as all three of the teams ahead of the Bombers in the AL East ahead of New York lost today, and ironically, a struggling Tampa team to buy wins won tonight.

New York has an off day tomorrow as they travel to Tampa bay to begin a three-game series with the Rays, with first pitch scheduled for Friday at 8:10 PM/EST.



1 comment:


  1. The 'Wild Card' is just another form of Affirmative Action.

    Every loss this week, is a win for next season.

    I was rooting for the Yankees to lose last night. First time for everything. Sad how this is playing out.
    So lets go out, and lose every game leading up to the August 1st. Trade Deadline.

    Make it easy for management to do their jobs....' By putting a true winning team on the field.' Not a .500 club, that can not hit.

    Lets stop pretending, and lets start to get ready for 2017.

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)