The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sanchez, Yankes rout Tigers
Catcher blasts two homers in laugher
DETROIT » Gary Sanchez hit two home runs — including a first-inning drive estimated at nearly 500 feet — and Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven tidy innings in his return from the disabled list to lead the New York Yankees to a 13-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
Sanchez’s two-run shot in the first was estimated at 493 feet by Statcast. The Yankees led 2-0 after that and never looked back.
Tanaka (9-10) allowed three runs and six hits in his first appearance since Aug. 9. He’d been out with right shoulder inflammation.
Matthew Boyd (5-7) allowed seven runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings.
Aaron Judge singled and walked three times, ending his record-setting streak of 37 games with at least one strikeout.
Aaron Hicks added a homer for the Yankees. Nicholas Castellanos hit two for Detroit, including an inside-the-park homer with two outs in the ninth.
Sanchez and Todd Frazier each had three hits for New York.
Tanaka struck out four without a walk. He threw 90 pitches.
Tanaka didn’t allow a baserunner until the third inning. By then, the Yankees already led 7-0. After Sanchez’s homer, New York added another run in the first on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Austin.
The Yankees scored four more runs in the third. Austin hit an RBI single, and Todd Frazier added a two-run triple. Frazier then scored on a sacrifice fly by Ronald Torreyes.
Ian Kinsler hit an RBI double for Detroit in the third, but the Yankees scored two more runs in the fourth. Hicks hit a two-run homer in the seventh to make it 11-1.
Later that inning, the Yankees
pinch-hit for Judge, ensuring that he would finish the night without a strikeout.
Castellanos hit a tworun homer in the seventh. Sanchez’s two-run drive in the ninth was his 25th home run of the year.
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Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred visited the ballpark before the game. He met with Chris Ilitch, who took over the Tigers and Detroit Red Wings when his father died in February. Manfred toured Little Caesars Arena, the new venue that will house the Red Wings and Detroit Pistons this coming season.
“After everything I saw today, including the amazing development projects from the Ilitch family, I am quite confident that the Detroit Tigers and the city of Detroit have a very bright future,” he said.
As for the recent protest by umpires, who wore wristbands to draw attention to what they saw as unreasonable verbal abuse from players and managers, Manfred said: “I want to be clear that the protest was a violation of their collective bargaining agreement.” AT
“We let them know that we intended to enforce our rights under that agreement, but fortunately, we were able to agree on a meeting,” he added. TRAINER’S ROOM Yankees: 1B Greg Bird (right ankle), 2B Starlin Castro (right hamstring) and DH Matt Holliday (left lumbar) remained out on rehab assignments. UP NEXT Yankees: RHP Luis Severino (10-5) takes the mound Wednesday night against the Tigers. He’ll have an extra day of rest because of the team’s off day Monday.
Tigers: RHP Jordan Zimmermann (7-10) starts for Detroit.
Night-session attendance was 3,958, following a daysession crowd of 2,907.
Radwanska, who had a first-round bye, hadn’t made it past the Round of 16 in any tournament since January.
“I’m feeling much better than in the beginning of the year,” Radwanska said. “I’m not struggling with my health anymore. I feel strong. I feel better. I’m confident on the court as well.”
Radwanska moves on to the quarterfinals to face eighth-seeded Shuai Peng, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, despite a stumble in the second set that brought a visit from the trainer.
Peng is 4-3 against 10thranked Radwanska, with wins in the past three meetings, all on hardcourt.
“I’ve lost to both of them this year,” Radwanska said while their match was ongoing, “so for sure it’s a good chance to get revenge.”
Radwanska is now 4-0 against Bouchard, ranked 74th, whose six double faults did her no help.
At 1-1 in the second set, Radwanska missed with her first two first serves. Her second serves went for 72 mph and 64 mph. Bouchard put the first one long and the second into the net.
Bouchard put a winner down the right sideline, and again Radwanska was wide with her first serve. Bouchard returned her 70mph second serve long.
The players broke back and forth in the first set, Radwanska getting the last of a run of three to take a 4-3 lead. Bouchard had a break point in the next game off a big forehand winner, pumping her fist.
But three straight errors gave the game to Radwanska,
and she broke Bouchard to take the set, finishing a long rally with a forehand winner on her third set point.
“I feel we had some good tennis,” Bouchard said. “I feel a little inconsistency let me down. I was fighting to the end.”
Radwanska broke to go up 5-3 in the second set on Bouchard’s fifth double fault. Bouchard broke back with a forehand winner after returning a 71-mph second serve at deuce.
“I expected this kind of match,” Radwanska said. “She seems, now, better than a few months ago. She’s pretty consistent. It was a good first match. I didn’t expect any easy match.”
Bouchard had two chances to hold in the deciding game. Radwanska, playing her third tournament since she married Dawid Celt, staved them off, then won on her fourth match point.