Pineda gets over worst start of year
Brett Gardner had an interesting vantage point for yet another dominant performance by Michael Pineda at Yankee Stadium.
In Pineda’s seven-inning outing, only one ball was hit to Gardner in left field, a single by Hanley Ramirez to start the seventh.
For the most part, Pineda kept the ball on the ground and didn’t allow a homer for just the third time this season in a 9-1 win over the Red Sox on Thursday.
“He gave up two cheap infield hits in the first and then I looked up when he was done and I think they had four hits,” Gardner said. “That’s when you know he’s on.”
Pineda shook off one of his worst outings of the season last week in Toronto and gave up just an unearned run in seven innings, as he won for the fourth time in his last five starts.
He continued his dominance at home, improving to 6-1 with a 1.96 ERA in seven games this year at Yankee Stadium.
Pineda has been one of the reasons the Yankees have been able to survive Masahiro Tanaka’s miserable first two-plus months of the season.
Pineada has been effective in all but two of his dozen starts this year. After giving up a season-high five runs and 10 hits in just five innings to the Blue Jays in his previous start — when he struck out just one — he mostly cruised against Boston.
“It’s been consistency and consistency with the fastball and he is using the changeup effectively and the slider is more consistent,’’ manager Joe Girardi said. “He has been able to put hitters away. He had trouble doing that last year.’’
In addition to the pair of infield hits, Pineda also walked a batter in the first, but he was helped by Gary Sanchez, who threw out Mookie Betts as he tried to steal second base and then got Hanley Ramirez swinging to end the inning.
“He made pitches,’’ Girardi said. “It’s growth in Michael. I think we have seen a lot of growth in Michael this year and we need to continue to see it.’’