On Sunday, The New York Yankees won a tight game against the Seattle Mariners with 4 careers pushed over 3. Masahiro Tanaka, the starter pitcher for the game helped the Yankees to break their wretched score streak with the last four games lost in a row.
Nevertheless, the game against the Mariners on Sunday gave the NY Yankees the enthusiasm to keep up the pace for this season. Both major league baseball teams started the game by facing their Japanese pitchers Masahiro Tanaka, and his former teammate Hisashi Iwakuma.
Both Tanaka and Iwakuma were expected to leave it all in the field, especially for Tanaka from the NY Yankees. However, the clash of former teammates resulted on Tanaka outmatching Iwakuma in the all-Japanese pitching matchup. It’s worth noticing that Sunday’s game marked the fifth time for the Yankees to experience a one-on-one Japanese pitching quarrel.
Thanks to Tanaka’s performance on the Yankee’s fifth game of the major league baseball season, there’s still hope for the favorite team for NY. Masahiro Tanaka served as a valuable asset for the team on Sunday given his seven-inning performance. On a different take, the NY Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi dropped Alex Rodriguez as the third man in the batting line to the sixth. Still, A-Rod was able to hit a two-run home run for the Yankees to take the lead against the Mariners and eventually win the game.
Even though the main star of the game was Tanaka with a solid seven-inning pitching, Rodriguez initiated the team’s pace. Near the final of the second inning, A-Rod was able to give two runs to the NY Yankees with a home run in the first pitch he could grasp.
A tight game for both the Yankees and the Mariners
The Mariners closed up on the Yankees as the game developed when Mark Teixeira made an error that allowed Seattle to push two runs towards home. What’s more, Jacob Ellsbury wasn’t on top of his game on Sunday afternoon, as he didn’t hold the finest defense for New York.
The mistake was also Jacoby Ellsbury’s work as he wrongly played the match in center field. Nevertheless, their mistakes worked to get the Mariners close to beating the Yankees, but it wasn’t enough. Now, even though Tanaka and Iwakuma were faced against each other, both pitchers played a good game.
Iwakuma also pitched for seven innings straight, in which he got eight hits and gave out four runs. Tanaka, on the other hand, gave earned runs to anyone and struck out six. All of this while going throughout seven innings as well, and all times debut for the starter for the Yankees.
Source: ESPN