New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka gave up two fifth inning home runs, as the Angels climbed out of a 4-0 deficit to win 11-5.
Couldn’t keep it down
Tanaka had a lot of trouble keeping the ball on the ground on Thursday. Along with the home runs, hitters got nine fly-balls off of him, to just five ground-balls. He also only struck out two, which isn’t normal for him. Tanaka is usually good for at least six strikeouts.
He was also quite wild, walking three and throwing balls 38% of the time. Tanaka only got one swing and miss on the game.
Tanaka gave up six runs (five earned) over 5 and 2/3 innings, allowing six hits.
So overall, Tanaka was just off a bit on Thursday. It’s gonna happen to all pitchers, and you just have to live with it. He’ll bounce back on Wednesday at Arizona. Let’s just hope he doesn’t hurt himself running the bases this year.
Boone didn’t handle his bullpen right
The way that Yankees skipper Aaron Boone handled the bullpen on Thursday left a lot of people asking questions.
He had Jonathan Holder get just one out, before Stephen Tarpley and Joe Harvey gave up a combined five runs in the seventh inning. Before the runs scored, the Yankees only trailed by two.
Once the game seemed out of reach, he put in Tommy Kahnle, who has an ERA under two.
Why not go with Kahnle earlier on, or other high leverage guys like Zack Britton. It was unlikely that Chapman would of pitched on Thursday, as he pitched two of the prior three games.
Also, Boone could of went with Holder, who is beginning to improve from the beginning of the season. Situations like Thursday make you wish more and more that Chad Green wasn’t struggling and that Dellin Betances wasn’t injured.
Luke’s gettin’ hot
After a slowish start to the season, Luke Voit is red hot. He went 3-for-5 last night, and his average now sits at .255. Voit has reached base the last 36 games, and has gotten a hit in the last 12.
DJ LeMahieu also added two hits and drove in a run. Gardner, Torres, Urshela, and Wade each had hits in the game.
Urshela’s hit left the yard for his first Yankee home run, and his average now sits at .283. Tyler Wade has been contributing well to the Yankees, playing solid defense and getting on base.
Early in Thursday’s game, Wade singled then stole second and third on back-to-back pitches. The next pitch scored Wade on a single by LeMahieu.
The Yankees now head up to San Francisco for their first interleague series of the season. Game time is at 10:15PM (ET) on Friday on YES and Fox Sports Go. James Paxton gets the ball for the Yankees against Madison Bumgarner of the Giants.