‘Mistakes’ dooming Kahnle
Tommy Kahnle was the least known of the three players the Yankees acquired from the White Sox in exchange for prospects last month, but there were high expectations for the right-handed reliever.
Lately, he hasn’t delivered — and that was especially true this weekend against the Red Sox.
He followed up an ugly outing in Friday’s loss with one that might have been even worse on Sunday. Kahnle faced just three batters in the Yankees’ 5-1 defeat at Fenway Park and all of them reached base.
After entering a game the Yankees trailed by two runs to start the eighth, Kahnle walked Xander Bogaerts on four pitches before Mitch Moreland doubled to left and Sandy Leon doubled to right, scoring both base runners. It gave the Red Sox a comfortable lead and would have been worse if Caleb Smith didn’t come in and stop the bleeding.
That followed up his Friday outing, when the Red Sox scored a pair of runs against Kahnle in just twothirds of an inning. Kahnle also allowed a two inherited runners to score in the 9-6 defeat.
“It’s mistakes,” Joe Girardi said. “He’s had a really good year and we’ve got to get him back on track.”
On Tuesday night in Detroit, the Yankees again will start a pitcher coming off the DL without first working a minor league rehab game. Saturday it was CC Sabathia, and Tuesday it will be Masahiro Tanaka.
“I’m prepared and ready to go. It feels absolutely way better than after that game in Toronto,’’ Tanaka, on the DL since Aug. 12 with shoulder inflammation, said Sunday. “I’ll be using [the time] until [Monday] to work on my arm, obviously, but I felt like I rested enough to get the fatigue out as well as get it strengthened as well.’’
Girardi usually doesn’t start a catcher in a day game that follows a night tilt, but he veered from the plan Sunday. After catching Saturday night, Gary Sanchez was behind the plate Sunday to work with Sonny
Gray for a third straight game. “We have an off day [Monday]. One of the things I have done in this 13-game stretch is DH [Sanchez] a number of times so he could play and keep the bat in the lineup,’’ Girardi said.