FALLING ON THEIR ACE
Young Yankees, Tanaka blasted to start new era
Masahiro Tanaka reacts after giving up a two-run homer in the second inning as the Rays battered him for seven runs in 2 2/ 3 innings in a 7-3 Opening Day beatdown. The hyped Baby Bombers — Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird and Aaron Judge — also struggled, going a combined 1-for-13.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The ace got spanked. The Baby Bombers bombed. The veteran DH looked like Alex Rodriguez by going hitless in four at-bats and striking out twice. All while owner Hal Steinbrenner looked on.
Welcome to the Yankees’ Opening Day, which began with an ocean of optimism and ended in a sea of stench.
“Obviously disappointed in the loss today,’’ Brett Gardner said of Sunday’s 7-3 defeat to the Rays in front of a sold-out Tropicana Field crowd of 31,042. “But it’s one game and come back Tuesday and try to get even with them.’’
Disappointing is one way of describing the Yankees’ sixth straight (club record) Opening Day loss. Ugly is another.
Staff ace Masahiro Tanaka, who is working in the front of a rotation swimming in questions, was spanked for seven runs and eight hits in 2 ²/₃ innings. He gave up a two-run homer to Evan Longoria in the second and a solo blast to Logan Morrison in the third.
“Today, he wasn’t as sharp as he usually is,’’ catcher Gary Sanchez said of Tanaka, who required 67 pitches to record eight outs. “He didn’t have command of his pitches.’
The heralded trio of Aaron Judge, Greg Bird and Sanchez went 1-for-13 overall, 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and 1-for-7 with runners on base. The lone hit was Judge’s RBI double off Chris Archer in the second, when the Yankees cut the Rays’ lead to 3-2. That swelled to 5-2 in the second and 7-2 in the third, when Tanaka was removed by Joe Girardi.
Sanchez made a throwing error in the third that helped the Rays score three runs. In the three-run first, Bird turned a ground-ball out into a single when the ball spilled out of his glove.
Matt Holliday, Rodrig uez’s replacement, didn’t make an impact.
Down five in the seventh, the Yankees had a chance against Archer and with Sanchez batting. With the bases loaded and two outs, the catcher had a chance to reward Girardi for hitting him’ second. But he hit a hard grounder to short and stranded three.
Archer celebrated leaving the bases juiced in the seventh with several fist pumps so hard that he lost his hat near the first-base line going to the dugout. In seven frames, the right-hander allowed two runs and seven hits. The Yankees loaded the bases again in the ninth and scored a run on Chris Carter’s sacrifice fly, but it was far from enough.
“We missed some chances to score runs. We fell behind early. We gave them seven runs in the first three innings and it’s tough to come back from that,’’ said Gardner, who had a two-out single in the seventh to give Sanchez a big chance. “Saw a few good things today but overall we didn’t play well enough. We got out-pitched and out-hit.’’
Considering there is inexperience and veterans who Gardner said “need to be better than last year” and a suspect rotation the Yankees are going to get out-hit at times. However, when Tanaka starts the Yankees aren’t used to getting out-pitched. “From Day 1 of spring training, I was looking forward to this day and obviously wanted to go out there and give a strong performance,’’ said Tanaka, who didn’t give up a spring-training run until his sixth and final start. “But I wasn’t able to do that today.’’ Perhaps it was a case of Opening Day nerves, which Tanaka mentioned. Or a mechanical flaw that affected his signature splitter.
hatever the reason, it was one element of a soiled Opening Day that began with optimism about Tanaka pitching and the Trinity of Youth hitting. Instead, long before the sun slipped into the Gulf of Mexico, the Yankees were mopping up Tanaka’s mess.