Saturday, May 21, 2016

Tanaka, Yanks Win Four Straight, 5-1

      On a beautiful day in the not so beautiful O.co Park, The Yankees looked for their fourth Street victory as they squared off against the Athletics in the third game of the four game series. Taking the ball for New York with a career 2-0 record against the A's was Masahiro Tanaka. Overall, Tanaka has pitched well this season for New York, with an ERA of 3.51, but an unlucky 1-0 record. For Oakland, rookie left-handed pitcher Shawn Manaea and his ballooned 6.85 ERA received the task of ending the Yankees winning streak this afternoon. According to YES Network's Ken Singleton, the ball travels much better during the day in Oakland, and although the starters did a good job of keeping the bat silent early, Kenny's ballpark assessment prove to be spot on.
      Both starters were perfect in the first inning, and in fact, Manaea was perfect through the first three frames. It wasn't until the top of the fourth that Manaea started to struggle. After walking Elsbury on four straight pitches, Manaea allowed his first hit of the afternoon, a Starlin Castro single that put two runners on with no outs. Teixeira followed with another walk that loaded the bases for last night's MVP Carlos Beltran. Hitting .321 in his last five games, the red-hot Beltran ripped a single off of the shortstop Marcus Simeon's glove that scored Elsbury, leaving the bases loaded and giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Aaron Hicks followed with a one-out sacrifice fly to left, 2-0 New York. Then, highly touted prospect Rob Refsnyder laced a clutch two-out double into centerfield that scored both Teixeira and Beltran, breaking the game open to 4-0 Yanks.
     Tanaka found himself in a bit of trouble in the bottom of the fifth inning. He led off the frame by walking catcher Matt McBride and followed that by serving up a single to Max Muncy. After getting Coco Crisp to ground into a force at second, Tanaka walked Billy Burns to load the bases. Danny Valencia followed with a sacrifice fly to center that scored McBride and put the A's on the board, 4-1. Tanaka would escape any further damage when he ended the inning by striking out the clean-up hitter Khris Davis.
     The Yanks would chase the starter Manaea from the game in the top of the seventh inning. Ronald Torreyes got it going when he reached base on a one-out single. Starlin Castro collected his third hit of the game when he smoked a two-out double to left that scored Torreyes and ended Manaea's afternoon. The rookie left with a final line of 6.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BB and 4 K's.
     Masahiro Tanaka was again stellar today as he lead the Yankees to their fourth consecutive victory. He had to love the run-support he received, leaving it up to the strong bullpen while sporting a sweet final line of 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB and 4 K's. Nick Goody would get the final six outs of the game as the Yankees kept their string of quality starts and clutch hitting rolling. It's the first time since last September that New York has exceeded a win streak of more than three games. New York looks to finish off the four-game sweep of Oakland, with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 PM ET.

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