CINCINNATI (AP) The Yankees know how to pull an all-nighter and come up aces.
Their Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka won his fifth consecutive start, Brett Gardner and Matt Holliday homered, and New York shook off a long game and a short night’s sleep to beat Cincinnati 10-4 on Monday night for its sixth victory in a row.
The Yankees have the best record in Major League Baseball at 21-9 and are 12 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2015 season.
Better yet, they were awake to enjoy all of it.
”Guys were really fatigued,” manager Joe Girardi said. ”That shows you something about these guys.”
Their biggest challenge was overcoming the strain from an 18-inning, 5-4 win at Wrigley Field early Monday. The Yankees didn’t land in the Cincinnati area until 5:08 a.m., and the sun was up when some of them finally fell asleep. Players sipped caffeinated drinks and yawned in the clubhouse pregame.
The best-rested Yankee was Tanaka (5-1), who arrived in Cincinnati on Sunday night and watched that marathon game on television from his hotel room.
Well, most of it.
”I watched all the way until the top of the 18th,” Tanaka said through a translator. ”I saw my team score that run but in the bottom of the 18th, I fell asleep.”
Tanaka gave them what they needed after their all-nighter, going seven innings on 112 pitches to rest the bullpen. He allowed four runs – Joey Votto drove in three with a single and a homer – while ending the Reds’ five-game winning streak.
”That’s a big boost for them,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. ”They play 18 innings, and then their starter goes seven. That puts them in a lot better shape for tomorrow.”
Gary Sanchez got the Yankees going with his bases-loaded single in the first off Rookie Davis (1-2), a former Yankees prospect. Didi Gregorius also drove in a pair off Davis, who went to the Reds in the trade for closer Aroldis Chapman after the 2015 season.
Gardner and Holliday connected in the eighth inning as the Yankees pulled away.
There were some sloppy moments for the AL East leaders. The Yankees committed a pair of errors in the infield and had a runner thrown out at second base while tagging on a flyout.
Girardi gave Aaron Judge and Starlin Castro a day out of the starting lineup, and he’ll give a couple more players some rest on Tuesday to help them fully recover from the 6-hour, 5-minute game in Chicago.
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