Masahiro Tanaka struck out 10 in 7 1/3 outstanding innings, while Jacoby Ellsbury and Gary Sanchez homered in a span of four pitches with nobody out in the bottom of the sixth inning as the surging New York Yankees ran their winning streak to a season-high seven games with a 5-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday.Tanaka (13-4) won his sixth straight decision and has not lost since August 2. The Yanks (76-65) are on a season-best seven-game winning streak and have won 13 of their last 17 games.
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“That was a huge team win for us”, Austin said, “and a special moment”.
Mark Teixeira rounded first base, raised his right arm in triumph and headed on a celebratory circle of the bases.
“I think you can say that”, Girardi said. Tyler Clippard, who knows a little something about an fantastic run, off a September previous year with the crosstown Mets, tossed a scoreless eighth inning. We’re closer than we’ve been all year. Teammates met him at home plate by dousing him with water in a raucous celebration.
After blowing three leads during the first six innings, NY moved within two games of Baltimore for the second AL wild card and four games of AL East-leading Boston. Archer went 6.1 innings, surrendering two runs, striking out nine and walking one in a 5-3 defeat to the Blue Jays in his last outing.
The Rangers lost for the fourth time in five games, but still lead the AL West division by 8 1/2 games.
Sanchez has homered in two straight games after his back-to-earth stretch of 10 straight games without a homer or RBI.
“Just a day for both of them”, Girardi said, who also said beforehand the bullpen would be without Dellin Betances and Luis Severino because of recent workloads.
Hernan Perez led the onslaught with his second four-hit game in three days, driving in three runs.
Yankees reliever Jonathan Holder created a mess when he asked catcher Brian McCann to repeat the signs in the fifth inning. The home run was the big hit in the game, and was a welcomed sight for Teixeira. An inning later, he came to bat left-handed, with the bases loaded, against Jepsen, a pitcher he had hit a three-run home run off of in July 2015. The Yankees added two in the eighth on SAC Flies by Sanchez and Didi Gregorius. His next loss will tie the team record set by Tanyon Sturtze, who was 4-18 in 2002. Sanchez followed Ellsbury’s eighth home run by driving a 1-1 pitch into the visiting bullpen beyond the left-center field fence.Sanchez drove in New York’s final run with a sacrifice fly.
The streaky Souza had been in a 5-for-40 slump without a home run.
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Said Starlin Castro, “It’s a lot of energy we have here”. Nolan Ryan is the only AL pitcher to ever lead the league in losses and strikeouts, doing it in 1976 with the Angels. The teams traded leadoff home runs in the second. He ripped a hard single to center in the sixth. His first two homers came on fastballs in nearly the same exact spot, almost right down the middle but a little on the outer third. Franklin got looked at by the trainer and stayed in the game. NOTES: Chad Mottola became the seventh hitting coach in Tampa Bay history and said he is familiar with OF Mikie Mahtook and 3B Richie Shaffer from their time together with Triple-A Durham. I have to watch his neck, ” Girardi said. That might not sound like much, but we probably should mention here that the Rays were trying to intentionally walk him at the time. Ramirez was released by the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
