This one stung. Getting blown out like the Yankees did on Tuesday is no big deal, but dropping a close game in which the go-ahead and tying run was on base multiple times is a tough pill to swallow. The Orioles bested the Yankees in the late innings to win the series finale 5-4.
Second Start, Same As The First
In his first big league start last week, Masahiro Tanaka held the Blue Jays to three runs in seven innings of work. He struggled in the early innings before rolling late. It was a fine first impression. On Wednesday, Tanaka again allowed three runs in seven innings, this time to the Orioles. He again struggling early before settling in later in the game. Does this qualify as a pattern? Who cares.
The Orioles threatened in the first inning with Delmon Young’s one-out double — the Yankees will get him out one of these years, I think — and threatened again in the second, this time capitalizing when Tanaka hung a slider to Jonathan Schoop. The rookie infielder clubbed a two-out, three-run homer down the left field line that stayed fair and wrapped around the foul pole. After the homer, Tanaka retired 16 of the final 20 men he faced, including the last seven in a row. One of the final ten Orioles hit the ball in the air.
Tanaka gave up the homer on a hanging slider, and while it’s cliche to say that was his only mistake since they were the only runs he allowed, it sure wasn’t his only mistake. He got away with a number of hangers and high pitches in general. Tanaka needs to cut down on that going forward, but, at the same time, I think his unpredictable pitching style helps him get away with those more than the average pitcher. Here’s the pitch breakdown, courtesy of Brooks Baseball:
- 101 total pitches, 71 strikes, 22 swings and misses
- 41 sinkers, 30 strikes, five swings and misses, averaged 92.1 mph and topped out at 94.4
- 31 splitters, 23 strikes, 11 swings and misses (!), averaged 86.5 mph and topped out at 89.3
- 18 four-seamers, 12 strikes, three swings and misses, averaged 92.6 mph and topped out at 95.5
- Five sliders and six curveballs. I’m pretty sure PitchFX misclassified some sliders somewhere. Seems like he threw a lot more than five.
I didn’t think Tanaka’s stuff was as crisp as it was in his first start, especially his slider, but he still struck out ten and generated those 22 swings and misses. That’s pretty great. He shook off the homer like a champ and pitched deep into the game, which is exactly what you want to see after early struggles. The guy doesn’t get rattled. It’s awesome. Tanaka is still adjusting to the new league and a new culture and all that, and I think once he gets more comfortable and gets to know some of hitters around the league, he’s really going to be dynamite. Three runs and seven innings with less than his best stuff? That’ll do.
Death By Bullpen
For the second straight game, the bullpen let the Yankees down. Tuesday’s game was mostly out of reach by time Vidal Nuno took over, but the score was still tied when interim closer Shawn Kelley got the ball in the ninth inning on Wednesday. Ryan Flaherty slashed a double to leadoff the frame, then Schoop, Nick Markakis, and Young dunked singles in front of outfielders. Every hit except Markakis’ came in a two-strike count.
Once Flaherty moved to third with no outs on Schoop’s single, the game was just about over. Kelley is extremely fly ball prone and it was only matter of time before someone lifted a ball to the outfield for a sac fly. Markakis just did one better and singled. An insurance run came around to score on Chris Davis’ sac fly. Maybe replacing Mariano Rivera with no one in particular wasn’t a good idea? Matt Thornton and mostly Adam Warren escaped a jam in the eighth inning to give the Yankees a chance, but no dice.
Blown Chances
The Yankees had an opportunity to take the lead in the eighth inning, when Brett Gardner led off with a double into the right field corner. He moved to third on Derek Jeter’s bunt — I’m usually anti-bunt, but I liked it there because a) I don’t trust Jeter to do anything productive against a hard-throwing right-hander, and b) Jacoby Ellsbury is a high-contact hitter — but Ellsbury popped up in foul territory and Brian McCann flew out to center. Carlos Beltran was intentionally walked in between. Ellsbury’s the goat there, if you must assign blame.
The ninth inning rally came to an abrupt end when Yangervis Solarte banged into a game-ending double play. Alfonso Soriano poked a leadoff double to second and Kelly Johnson followed with an infield single off Davis’ glove, putting runners at the corners with no outs. Brian Roberts put together a long at-bat (surprise surprise) against Tommy Hunter, eventually lifting a sac fly into the right field corner. He juuust missed the pitch. Solarte ended the game as the next batter. Teases.
Signs of Life
It sure looks like the middle of the lineup is starting to snap out of their collective slump. Soriano homered on Tuesday and has been hitting the ball hard for a few games now. McCann did not have a hit on Wednesday, but he did lace a line drive right at the right fielder and I thought he had better at-bats as well. Beltran doubled on Tuesday and continued to rake on Wednesday, with a solo homer (into the second deck) for the team’s first run and a double to help create their third run.
The third run was the essence of Beltran as a player. He pulled a double down the right field line, moved to third on McCann’s line out to right, and scored when Soriano grounded out to shortstop. Beltran is nowhere near the runner he was during his prime, but he’s an incredibly intelligent player who still runs the bases well because his instincts are so good. The double set it up, but getting to third and scoring on the ground ball was all about Beltran being such a smart base-runner.
Defense? Defense!
The Yankees lost Tuesday’s game partly due to their atrocious infield defense. In the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game, the team flashed some serious leather. First, Gardner ran down a line drive in center field, a ball that kinda knuckled from left to right and couldn’t have been easy to read. Next, Soriano made a diving/lunging catch on a would-be bloop hit near the left field foul line. Finally, Roberts made a ridiculous grab on a hard-hit ground ball, going to his knees before having to reach up to snare the ball. It was awesome.
Leftovers
Johnson swatted a solo homer for New York’s second run, his second homer in as many days. He also mishandled a hard pickoff throw in the eighth inning, allowing the runner to advance to second base in a tie game. It didn’t come back to hurt them, but that was a clear example of inexperience burning the Yankees at first base.
Tanaka walked Matt Wieters with two outs in the third inning, the first walk by one of the team’s starters since Ivan Nova last Thursday. They went 33 innings between walks, by my count. That is the longest such streak since … I have no idea. No clue how to look that up. Sorry. Probably been a while though.
Also, with the ten strikeouts, Tanaka is the first rookie pitcher in team history to strike out at least eight batters in his first two starts. That’s kinda ridiculous. The last Yankee to strike out at least eight batters in his first two starts? Mike Mussina, who did it in seven straight starts to open the 2003 season.
And finally, Jeter’s plate appearance in the eighth inning was the 12,000th of his career, the 18th most in history. Hooray for round number milestones.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and video highlights, go to MLB.com. For some other stats, go to FanGraphs. For the up to the minute standings, go to ESPN.
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Red Sox are coming to town for a long four-game weekend series. That’ll be fun. CC Sabathia Michael Pineda and Clay Buchholz will be the pitching matchup for the series-opener on Thursday night. If you want to catch any or all of those games live, RAB Tickets can help get you in the door.
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