Sanchez also doubled and was intentionally walked twice by the Mariners.
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It took little time for Yankees’ rookie Gary Sanchez to receive the type of respect normally reserved for established veterans considered among the elite hitters. “I’m hitting.195, of course you walk him there”. Wednesday marked the first time Tanaka had accomplished that feat in back-to-back starts. He became the fifth player since 1913 to have nine or more home runs in his first 21 games.
“There’s been a lot of games, I’ve said, where he’s pitched a lot better than the line”. “It’s not just the damage, it’s how he’s doing it, hitting the ball out of the park. I don’t care how old he is”.
The Mariners couldn’t do anything offensively Tuesday night and now have to face Tanaka, who has owned the M’s and has allowed just four runs in his last 14.2 innings overall.
Angels 8, Blue Jays 2: Albert Pujols moved into sole possession of 10th place on the career home run list with 584, Matt Shoemaker pitched six shutout innings and Los Angeles beat Toronto to snap an 11-game road losing streak.
Once more, Tanaka praised Sanchez for his burgeoning skills behind the plate.
“It’s outstanding, astonishing”, Tanaka said through an interpreter. Tanaka will be facing former Japanese teammate Hisashi Iwakuma, with whom he played from 2007-11 with Rakuten.
With just 37 games remaining, and two upcoming series against the AL West-leading Rangers, the Mariners can’t afford to lose many more games against non-contenders if they’re going to stay in the wild-card race.
Sanchez staked the Yankees to a 1-0 lead with two outs in the first, hammering the first pitch 420 feet into the upper deck in left field for his ninth home run since being called up August 3.
Jacob deGrom was roughed up for the second straight start, allowing five runs on 12 hits in 42/3 innings.
Yankees rookie Gary Sanchez continued his historic power surge, but the two chances he was denied garnered nearly as much attention. “I thought he was OK, his effort was good”. Rookie Edwin Diaz survived a shaky ninth, putting runners on second and third with one out before getting Mark Teixeira on a fly ball and Brett Gardner on a grounder to pick up his 10th save in 10 chances.
“He had to really battle early on”, Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi said. “He made a few mistakes”, Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
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“One time past year, I went through a period where I was hot for a couple of weeks”, Sanchez said when asked if he’d ever been on such a torrid streak.
