Masahiro Tanaka Archives - IdealCapper

Tanaka steers Yankees to shutout win vs. Blue Jays

Associated Press — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:14:57 +0000

NEW YORK: New York’s Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven scoreless innings to steer the Yankees to a 5-0 win against Toronto on Sunday, snapping their five-game losing sequence and edging within 3-1/2 games of the Blue Jays in the race for top spot in the American League East division.
Elsewhere, AL Central leader Kansas City lost to Baltimore to see its division lead cut to an even 10 games, while Houston boosted its narrow lead in the AL West with a remarkable last-out rally to beat the Los Angeles Angels.
The Los Angeles Dodgers maintained their healthy buffer atop the National League West by edging Arizona, while St. Louis retained its fragile NL Central lead by defeating Cincinnati.
Tanaka (12-6) struck out seven, walked none and threw 76 of 108 pitches for strikes. He is 3-0 with a 2.54 ERA in his past four starts. His efforts prevented the Yankees suffering a series sweep at the hands of their chief AL East rival.
“I had a sense of having some of the better stuff early on in the game,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “I just try to be resilient, not give in, and attack. My mindset was I’m not going to let these guys sweep us.”
Dustin Ackley homered and had three RBIs for the Yankees, who sent Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (10-11) to his first loss since before the All-Star break.
Baltimore’s Chris Davis hit his league-leading 42nd home run of the season to help the Orioles beat Kansas City 8-2, keeping a pulse in their playoff hopes.
The Royals have lost seven of nine and dropped their third straight series for the first time this season.
Baltimore’s Jonathan Schoop added two solo homers among his three hits.
Los Angeles’ Zack Greinke pitched eight scoreless innings to lower his major league-leading ERA to 1.61, helping the Dodgers beat Arizona 4-3.
Greinke (17-3) won his fourth straight game and eighth in the past nine starts, striking out eight. Of his 24 outs recorded, only one was a fly ball.
St. Louis’ Tommy Pham hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the sixth inning and Matt Adams added a two-run drive in a five-run eighth which helped lift the Cardinals from a 2-0 deficit to beat Cincinnati and avoid a four-game sweep.
The Cardinals, on their worst stretch this season, had lost eight of 10 going into the series finale and has been outscored 20-3 in the first three games of the series.
Adams’ homer, as a pinch-hitter, was his first long shot in over two months.
Houston’s Jed Lowrie hit a three-run homer to complete an astounding five-run rally with two outs in the ninth inning which gave the Astros a stunning 5-3 win against the Los Angeles Angels.
Preston Tucker started the rally with a two-strike solo homer for the Astros, who got five consecutive hits off Angels closer Huston Street (3-3), the AL saves leader.
George Springer tripled and scored on Jose Altuve’s single before Carlos Correa got an infield single when his grounder got stuck in the webbing of the second baseman’s glove.
Lowrie then hit his shot to the short right-field corner. Right fielder Kole Calhoun reached into the crowd to try to take the catch but came up empty, sending the Houston dugout into a wild celebration.
The Astros have a 1 1-2 game lead over the Rangers in the AL West and open a four-game series at Texas on Monday.
Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison hit a winning single in the 11th inning to give the Pirates a valuable 7-6 win against Milwaukee.
Harrison’s hit off Tyler Thornburg (0-1) kept the Pirates within 2-1/2 games of St. Louis in the NL Central, and opened a four-game margin for the NL wild-card lead over the Chicago Cubs, who start a four-game series at the Pirates on Tuesday.
The Brewers had runners at the corner bases with one out in the 11th but Jared Hughes (3-1) induced Scooter Gennett to hit into an inning-ending double play.
San Francisco’s Mike Leake pitched six strong innings and hit a three-run homer to help the Giants beat San Diego 10-3 and complete a three-game sweep.
Leake (10-8) allowed four hits and two walks over six-plus innings.
Minnesota’s Torii Hunter hit a three-run homer and an RBI single to power the Twins to a 7-0 win against the Chicago White Sox, who they have shut out four times this season.
Twins starter Kyle Gibson (10-10) went 7 2-3 scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking just one.
Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard homered and drove in three runs as the Phillies won 7-4 to dent the Chicago Cubs’ wild-card ambitions.
New York’s Daniel Murphy hit a tying three-run homer in the ninth against Ryan Kelly and Kirk Nieuwenhuis scored the tiebreaking run on a throwing error to give the Mets a 10-7 win against Atlanta.
Boston’s Rusney Castillo had a go-ahead two-run single in the 13th inning to lift the Red Sox over Tampa Bay 2-0 in a dour contest.
Texas’ Adrian Beltre homered twice to drive in five runs and Choo Shin-soo also went deep as the Rangers beats Oakland 12-4.
Cleveland and Detroit split their double-header, with the Indians taking the opener 7-2 and the Tigers winning 9-2 in the night game.
Washington’s Max Scherzer (12-11) won for the first time since July 30, pitching eight scoreless and walk-less innings to lead the Nationals past Miami 5-0.
Colorado’s Nolan Arenado hit a sacrifice fly to give the Rockies a 3-2 win against Seattle.

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Beltran, Yankees rally, end Toronto’s 11-game winning streak

Associated Press — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 12:17:58 +0000

TORONTO (AP) Masahiro Tanaka allowed just five hits for his first complete game in more than a year, leading the New York Yankees to a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

The Yankees won their third straight following a five-game skid and extended their AL East lead over Toronto to 1 1/2 games. The Blue Jays, coming off an 11-game winning streak, lost for the second day in a row to New York.

Carlos Beltran, who hit a big home run Friday night at Rogers Centre, and Mark Teixeira connected for solo shots to back Tanaka (9-5).

Tanaka struck out eight and walked three while helping the Yankees rest their taxed bullpen.

Marco Estrada (10-7) lost for the first time in four starts, allowing two runs and three hits in six innings.

Boston’s Jackie Bradley Jr. hit two homers and three doubles to drive in seven runs as the Red Sox battered Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners 22-10.

The Red Sox broke loose for the second straight day after manager John Farrell took a medical leave for the rest of the season to deal with lymphoma.

Boston got 26 hits in the highest-scoring game ever against the Mariners. Pablo Sandoval and Alejandro De Aza homered, and David Ortiz and Blake Swihart each had three RBIs. Sandoval homered in his first at-bat, then was hit in the right elbow by Hernandez and left with a bruise.

Nelson Cruz hit his major league-leading 35th homer for the Mariners.

In Houston, Victor Martinez hit a tiebreaking RBI double in a three-run 11th inning as the Detroit Tigers outlasted the Houston Astros 4-2.

Preston Tucker led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer to right-center against Bruce Rondon to tie the score at 1-1, spoiling an impressive start by Justin Verlander.

J.D. Martinez and Tyler Collins followed Victor Martinez with back-to-back run-scoring singles off Pat Neshek (3-3) to make it 4-1 in the 11th.

Pittsburgh pinch-hitter Chris Stewart singled home the go-ahead run in the 14th inning as the Pirates beat the New York Mets 5-3 in extra innings again.

A day after the Pirates won 3-2 in the 10th at Citi Field, they took advantage of shaky fielding decision to stop the NL East leaders.

The Cincinnati Twins downed the Cleveland Indians 4-1 after Tyler Duffey took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning of his second big league game, while Baltimore slugger Chris Davis hit two home runs, the second a tiebreaking shot with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning off switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, to lift the Orioles over the Oakland Athletics 4-3.

In other games, Matt Duffy hit a three-run double in the San Francisco Giants’ decisive six-run third inning as the Giants beat the Washington Nationals 12-6, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Miami Marlins 6-2, the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels 9-4, the Arizona Diamondbacks downed the Atlanta Braves 8-4 and the Milwaukee Brewers overcame the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2.

Scooter Gennett had a career-high four hits as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2, the Chicago Cubs won the ninth straight 6-3 over the Chicago White Sox, the Texas Rangers cruised past the Tampa Bay Rays 12-4, the San Diego Padres defeated the Colorado Rockies 7-5 and the Los Angeles Dodgers were 8-3 winners over the Cincinnati Reds.

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Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka to throw bullpen Tuesday

Tony Palazzo — Mon, 11 May 2015 20:58:50 +0000

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – New York Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Tuesday, his first since going on the 15-day disabled list last month because of a right forearm strain and right wrist tendinitis.

Tanaka made 10 pitches at 60 feet on level ground after a throwing session on flat ground before Monday night’s game at Tampa Bay.

He is 2-1 with 3.22 ERA in four starts this season.

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