Beltran's Late Inning Heroics Lift Yanks Over Angels, 5-2

     On a breezy night in the Bronx, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim squared off in game one of a four-game series. New York sent ace Masahiro Tanaka(3-1, 2.78 ERA) to the mound to face the Halos. On the mound for Los Angeles was the curious case of Matt Shoemaker. Shoemaker has an elevated ERA of 5.30, but has set an Angel record of pitching three consecutive games with 10+ strikeouts and is on the brink of making MLB history if he could record at least eight strikeouts with no walks for the fourth consecutive game. But, some clutch hitting and another solid Tanaka outing led New York to a game one win.
     The Angels got the scoring going in the top of the first inning when Tanaka allowed a leadoff single to Yunel Escobar, who scored on a single dumped into centerfield off the bat of Albert Pujols, making it a very early one run Angel lead. In the top of the third, LA extended their lead even farther when Tanaka allowed a ground rule double to former Yankee Gregorio Petit. Escobar then bunted Petit to third and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Kole Calhoun, 2-0 Angels. To make matters worse, the Yankees had to burn their challenge on a call of "out" when Jacoby Ellsbury tried to steal second base in the first. The call on the field was upheld despite the fact that Ellsbury was CLEARLY safe. Then, in the third inning, Mike Trout was CLEARLY out on a steal of second base but was called safe. But, Girardi and New York could not challenge due to the fact that they lost the ability to challenge in the first. It's hard enough to watch the game when the Yankees are struggling to score as much as they are recently. When the umpiring staff makes blatantly obvious mistakes like this, it makes it even worse.
     On the other side of the ball, the Yankees were making an all star out of Matt Shoemaker, who had a minuscule pitch count of 46 beginning this sixth inning. It wasn't until the bottom of the seventh that the Yankees got to Shoemaker, where Brian McCann and Starlin Castro hit back-to-back upper deck bombs that tied the game at two. And then, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Shoemaker allowed one out singles to Jacoby Ellsbury, his third hit of the night, and Brett Gardner. Carlos Beltran ended his night when he dbelted a long three run blast to right that gave the Yankees a 5-2 lead, where the score would remain for the duration.
     The Yankees will look to keep it going tomorrow night in game two against the angels, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM ET.