NO MAS'ING AROUND
Tanaka rolls, Yanks have 20 hits in victory
CHICAGO — Mashario Tanaka on the road pitching with five days’ rest instead of four is a bigger lock than Hillary Clinton not being trusted. Add in the Yankees’ lineup providing backup and you have the recipe for an easy win.
Following a hard-to-watch loss to the White Sox Monday, Tanaka starting with an extra day of relaxation outside The Bronx provided the Yankees hope they could avoid falling further into the AL East abyss.
Tanaka did what Las Vegas expected and Boys of Slumber woke up enough to combine with the right-hander for a 9-0 victory that was witnessed by 20,773 at U.S. Cellular Field.
It was Tanaka’s fourth win in five starts on the road and he is 4-0 in six starts pitching with a fifth day of rest. In 7 2/3 innings Tanaka (6-2) gave up six hits, one walk and fanned six. The shutout was the fourth by the Yankee staff but none have been completegame efforts.
After scoring two runs, going 0for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranding 11 runners in an 8-2 loss Monday, the Yankees’ lineup pounded White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon for six runs (five earned) and a dozen hits in five innings.
The Yankees finished with a season-high 20 hits and were led by Brett Gardner with four.
Chase Headley homered in a second straight game in the third with a runner on and Austin Romine connected for a solo blast in the fifth. Every member of the Yankees’ starting lineup had at least one hit and Carlos Beltran and Headley had three each.
Named to the AL All-Star team before the game, Beltran played right field for the first time since June 28 when he suffered a strained right hamstring.
It was the 41-42 Yankees’ second win in three games, but they are 4-6 in their previous 10.
Romine’s second hit of the game, a towering homer to left, hiked the Yankees’ lead to 6-0. Romine also doubled in the third.
After Beltran ran the Yankees out of a rally in the first inning, the visitors scored two runs in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.
With Beltran on third and Alex Rodriguez on second and one out in the opening frame, Mark Teixeira hit a sinking line drive up the middle that was knocked down by second baseman Brett Lawrie. With the play in front of him, Beltran waited to see if Lawrie was going to catch the ball. When the ball wasn’t caught, Beltran broke for home and was an easy out. Starlin Castro walked to load the bases for Headley but he whiffed and stranded three.
The two hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position extended the Yankees’ slump in that situation to 0-for-15.
Rob Refsnyder opened the second with a single to left, went to second on Gardner’s single to center and scored on Beltran’s single to right. Shortstop Tim Anderson didn’t field Rodriguez’s grounder and Gardner scored on the error.
Castro’s fifth straight hit was a single starting the third inning. Headley followed with his second homer in as many games for a 4-0 lead. It was Headley’s seventh of the season. The Yankees upped the cushion to 5-0 in the fourth when Teixeira’s one-out double just inside the third-base line scored Beltran from second. Beltran led off the inning with a double to right-center for his third hit in as many at-bats.