blasted from past
Cano cracks pair of 2-run HRs to top former team
Robinson Cano made sure the Yankees regretted not re-signing him last year. The former pinistriped power bat crushed two HRs, acounting for all four runs, in a 4-3 win over the Bombers Saturday in The Bronx.
Starter Michael Pineda entered with all sorts of impressive numbers for the Yankees on Saturday. The 26yearold righty led the American League in strikeoutstowalks ratio and in his bid to become the Yankees’ first pitcher to 10 wins, he brought something else against Seattle at Yankee Stadium.
A very wellrested arm. Pineda last pitched July 10. That’s a lot of rest. Maybe too much rest.
“He’s a guy that likes to work,” said manager Joe Girardi after Pineda was victimized by a pair of Robinson Cano tworun homers in the Yankees’ 43 loss to Seattle. “You can look at his struggles today: He gave up the two in the first, he made a mistake and then he kind of settled in the second through the fifth and made another mistake in the sixth. It’s not like he got bombed.” Only by Cano. “[Pineda’s] a guy,” Girardi added, “when you have these long layoffs you worry, but in the long run I think it helps. In the short term you worry a little bit.”
Pineda (96) immediately went into attack mode with his fastball. Unfortunately, Cano immediately went into launch mode.
“I feel very strong today and my fastball was good. My slider was not very sharp as I’m used to it being,” Pineda said.
“I love to attack hitters with my fastball. I had a really good fastball, and I always try to attack the hitter with my fastball.”
And Cano loves to swing at fastballs.
“The first homer, he jumped on the first pitch,” Pineda said. “The second homer [in the sixth inning] I threw my fastball inside and he got it. He’s a great hitter.”
Catcher Brian McCann felt Pineda threw well — except for those two shots, of course.
“He pitched good,” McCann said. “Cano hit a mistake that was up and hit it out to deadcenter field, which is hard to do. The second homer caught a little more of the plate than we wanted.”
Then it landed in the second deck in right.
“I don’t think he struggled,” McCann said of Pineda. “You had one of the better hitters in the game, and he’s starting to swing the bat a lot better. Take those away we’re looking seventh, eighth inning with no runs.”
Pineda went six innings, surrendering all four runs and six hits while walking two (high for him) and striking out two (low for him). It was only the fourth time in 18 starts that Pineda yielded multiple walks. And until Saturday, he had only yielded 10 homers all season. The four earned runs represented one more than he gave up in his three previous starts.
“I feel OK today,” Pineda said. “I tried to do my best. … [Cano] is a pretty good hitter, and he had a really good day.”