They hit their nadir on May 3, when after a loss to the Baltimore Orioles – their sixth loss in a row – their record was an unsightly 8-16.
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Polarizing New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is set to return to the team on Tuesday after spending some time on the disabled list.
Tanaka (2-0) had two walks and four strikeouts in his first win since April 12.
“I think it all starts with our starting pitching”, Brett Gardner said after the Yankees completed Sunday’s four-game sweep at Oakland with a 5-4 win. Unfortunately, Pineda didn’t completely shake his first inning blues, as he gave up a run in the first inning on Sunday.
Saturday marked the second straight contest that NY rested top relievers Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman.
Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman pitched an inning each to complete a six-hitter.
A’s starter Jesse Hahn struck out McCann for the second out, but he was pulled in favor of right-hander John Axford with the switch-hitting Mark Teixeira coming to the plate. And with two outs, opposing hitters were just killing him, batting a ridiculous.447 with an OPS of.882.
Luckily for Pineda, he kept the damage limited to three runs by keeping all of his pitches down and giving the Three-Headed Monster a lead. Burns singled, stole second and virtually walked to third, from where he scored on a groundout. The A’s also scored twice in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead, but Pineda rebounded with a ideal sixth after the Yankees scored twice in the top half of the inning. “Now we’re hitting better and we’re playing better all around”. Even Rothschild, a tough audience, grudgingly admitted he saw improvement in Pineda. “His fastball, he repeated some really good angles on it, hit some really good spots with it. Slider overall was pretty good”. As a matter of fact, I bet every person in the stands would at least attempt to rob a baseball from an opposing fan, it was the Yankees’ fan that got the last laugh.
“I threw the ball better today, ” Pineda said. “As long as they continue to do that, we have a chance to make some noise here”.
It was the third game in which Tanaka has pitched on five days of rest. Not exactly an ideal start to the first half of the season for the aging superstar. He has been out of baseball since May 4, so, what could a few more days cost NY? Starlin Castro followed with an RBI double to put the Yankees back in front.
“I’m just trying to stay a little taller on the mound and try to throw the ball down”, Pineda told NJ Advance Media.
The Yankees gave Sabathia plenty of support in the fourth inning when they batted around.
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ROYALS 2, WHITE SOX 1: Lorenzo Cain hit a solo home run and five Kansas City pitchers combined to allow seven hits in the Royals’ road victory over slumping Chicago.
