Sunday, July 10, 2016

Yanks Win A Wild One Over Tribe, 11-7, Get Back to .500

On a picturesque afternoon in Cleveland, the Yankees and Indians played  a crazy fourth game of the four-game weekend set. Masahiro Tanaka(6-2, 3.12 ERA) took the mound for the Yankees today in hopes of getting the Yankees back to .500 before the All-Star break. Trying to earn a series split, the Indians sent Carlos Carrasco and his 2.47 ERA to the mound to oppose New York. Neither starter would make it to the sixth, however, in this Sunday slugfest that ended the first half of the season.

Both hurlers pitched a scoreless first, but it wasn't until the second inning that the Yanks hit the scoreboard against Carasco.  Starlin Castro led off the inning with a double down the left-field line and scored when Rob Refsnyder reached on a Carlos Santana catching error, unable to catch the throw from shortstop Francisco Lindor. Austin Romibe followed with an opposite field blast that resulted in a double, but, Refsnyder misread the play and was only able to advance to third. Fortunately, the baserunning error was soon forgotten as Jacoby Ellsbury smashed a 3-2 changeup into the seats in right-center field, giving the Yankees a 4-0 lead. Both Ellsbury and the Yanks were fortunate that he had the opportunity to go deep because he thought he was walked on the 3-1 pitch by Carrasco, only to find out that the rookie hone plate umpire called it a strike. After an uncharacteristic demonstrative disagreement from the centerfielder, he proceeded to blast the next pitch out of the ballpark and even looked like he high-fived the same umpire as he touched home plate.

The Indians got one of those runs back in the bottom of the second but it could've been a lot worse for Tanaka and the Yankees. Mike Napoli led off the inning with a walk, advancing to second on a Lonnie Chisenhall ground ball single to right. With one out, Rajai Davis lined a single to center that scored Napoli and pulled the Tribe to within three. Tanaka would load the bases with two outs as he walked Yan Gomes but was able to escape the inning without any further damage when he got Carlos Santana to ground out to Teixeira.

The Bombers pushed the lead back up to four in the fourth as they knocked Carasco out of the game. Chase Headley started the inning with a double and Rob Refsnyder reached base again on another Indian error, this time a misplay by third baseman Jose Ramirez. Austin Romine then reached on a fielder's choice that saw Headley advanced to third and Refsnyder out at second base. The fifth Yankee run of the day was scored when Brett Gardner beat out a throw that would have been an inning ending double-play but instead was an RBI fielder's choice, 5-1 New York. Carasco was lifted after they failed to turn two, replaced by Austin Adams who got out of the fourth without any further damage.

The Cleveland miscues continued in the top of the fifth as the Yankees broke the game wide open, sending 12 men to the dish in total in the fifth inning alone. Teixeira singled, advancing to third on a Gregorius double. Jeff Manship replaced Adams and immediately walked Castro. Francisco Lindor made the third Indian error when he took a Chase Headley ground ball and threw it into right field trying to make a tough play at second, scoring Didi and Tex, 7-1. Refsnyder lined a single to ledt that re-loaded the bases. Romine followed with a sac-fly that scored Castro that made it an 8-1 game. T.J. House replaced Manship and served up another sac-fly to Gardner that scored Headley, 9-1, and then gave up a single to Ellsbury that advanced Refsnyder to third. Beltran then smacked an RBI single to right, 10-1, which was followed up by another RBI single to centerfield by Mark Teixeira that made it an 11-1 ballgame. House then drilled Gregorius in the shoulder and was pulled for Joseph Colon, who got Castro to strike out and end a very long half-inning.

The Indians would also bat around as they put up a six spot, completing a lengthy 48 minute fifth inning. Tanaka led off the frame serving up a double to Carlos Santana, who scored and made it 11-2 on a one-out Francisco Lindor double. Mike Napoli hit a single that advanced Lindor to third, eventually scoring when Jose Ramirez smacked a single to left that made it a 11-3 game. After Chisenhall grounded out to advance both runners up a base, Gregorius joined the error parade as he fielded a Rajai Davis grounder and threw it over the head of Teixeira, scoring both runners and pulling the Tribe to within six. The Tribe pulled it to within "slam-reach" when Tyler Naquin unloaded a two-run homerun to right field that forced Tanaka from the game. Nathan Eovaldi replaced Tanaka and proceeded to get out of the inning by getting Yan Gomes to line out to short.

Eovaldi went on to close out the game for the Pinstripers, ending a 3hr and 35min ballgame. The victory puts the Yankees back up to .500(44-44) and poses some very interesting questions to mow over for the next few days. New York resumes play on Friday night as they welcome in their bitter-rival, the Boston Red Sox, for a three-game weekend set.



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