IT’S A SNAP
A-Rod, Yanks end slumps vs. M’s:
MASAHIRO Tanaka’s importance to the Yankees seems to grow each day given the shoddy state of their rotation early this season. Their $155 million pitcher needs to be the ace they expected when he signed before the 2014 season, and he was that man on Sunday.
In the first MLB meeting between two Japanese starters who were teammates in Japan, Tanaka outdueled Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma to play the role of stopper and Alex Rodriguez broke out of his slump with a second-inning homer in a 4-3 Yankee victory over the Mariners before a crowd of 43,856 in the Bronx. The Yankees (5-6) snapped a four-game losing streak. “I think that’s always important that somebody has the ability to stop a losing streak,” Joe Girardi said. “You don’t want to lose another game and then you have to think about it over your off day and it becomes five. So I think that’s always important.”
Tanaka (1-0) became the first Yankees starter to complete seven innings this season, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits, no walks and six strikeouts while throwing 93 pitches. The outing easily could’ve been better for Tanaka, who was the victim of softcontact hits getting through defensive shifts in the first, a 24-pitch frame during which he gave up three hits and a run; a Mark Teixeira error in the fourth; and a poor dive by Jacoby Ellsbury in the fifth resulting in a Norichika Aoki triple. Aoki scored on a Seth Smith single up the middle with the infield in to tie the game, 3-3.
“Certainly there was some unluckiness there,” Tanaka said through an interpreter about the first inning. “But if I get my head down because of that, then I felt like I would get more unlucky.”
The 27-year-old, who joked the warmer weather helped him have his best start of the year, topped out at 94 mph in the sixth and seventh innings, both of which were perfect frames.
“I think (Tanaka’s) arm’s feeling better,” said Brian McCann, who scored on Rodriguez’s home run after being hit by a pitch. “He’s got his mechanics down. He kind of eased into this, I think. Any time you see 92, 94 out of him, everything else plays up.”
Brett Gardner, who went 3-for-4 and had his third straight multi-hit game, scored the go-ahead run in the fifth on a wild pitch from Iwakuma, who gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks in seven innings. Tanaka and Iwakuma were teammates on the Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2007-2011. “Extremely satisfied being able to get that win,” Tanaka said. “Obviously facing a former (teammate), that was one thing, but another thing was that I was able to help stop the fourgame skid. In that sense, I think today was a good day.”
The Yanks finally came through with a runner in scoring position. Gardner’s ground-rule double in the third inning drove Ellsbury in from third base, breaking an 0-for-30 stretch with RISP, though the Yanks finished the game 1-for-11 in those situations. The Yankees are 4 for their last 57 with RISP.
Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller struck out the side in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to finish the game. A-Rod, who was dropped to sixth in the order, broke an 0-for-19 slump with a first-pitch, two-run homer to left in the second to put the Yanks up 2-1.
Tanaka is the only Yankees starter whose ERA is under 5.00. He has a 3.06 ERA through three starts. The other four starters, who have each made two starts, have a combined 6.14 ERA over 44 innings. “I think it’s important, but it’s important that every guy does his job and (be) who they’re capable of being,” Girardi said. “But he’s a guy that can shut down a lineup and hopefully get deep into games for us.”