From there Tanaka faced just one batter with a runner in scoring position.
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Yankees fans can either lament the fact that they have witnessed few such games this season and when they happen they are usually followed by a dud, or they can revel in them when they happen.
“It’s a tough day today, a quick turnaround with the day game and the time change and all that”, said left fielder Brett Gardner, who went 0 for 5 with two strikeouts. “You have to make pitches all the time”. “We made some great adjustments”.
Beltran doubled to lead off the fourth and scored on Teixeira’s one-out double for a 5-0 lead. NY (40-42) lost for the third time in the past four games and the sixth time in the past nine games.
“Everyone really getting a chance to swing the bat well today and everyone contributing, that’s always nice”, NY manager Joe Girardi said. “Everything needs to get better for us to turn this thing around”. We had plenty of opportunities today, and we weren’t able to cash in. Shields allowed five hits, walked two and struck out three.
Tanaka added that one could argue he’s been better at times on normal rest, such as last season: He was 2-2 with a 2.56 ERA in five starts on regular rest in 2015 and 7-4 with a 3.51 ERA in 14 starts on one extra day of rest. He allowed three hits and one run in 6 2/3 innings.
“That was the difference in the game”, Girardi said. “But for me, what I’m looking at is guys moving guys over and getting guys in and we’re executing that really well”. He surrendered four runs on eight hits in five innings on May 15 when the White Sox visited Yankee Stadium.
James Shields pitched well in his two starts before the matchup with the Yankees.
“(It’s) not that I’m mad, but I’m asked the question every time”, Girardi said. “It’s frustrating. Stuff is good, stuff is there, I’m just not executing pitches when I need to”.
Yankees third baseman Chase Headley hit a two-run, two out home run in the second inning to put the Yankees up 2-0.
Starlin Castro drew a walk to load the bases with two out, but Headley struck out to end the threat.
Chicago evened the score at 2 in the third inning on Anderson’s two-run home run. Sabathia threw a fastball low and away, and Anderson drove the pitch an estimated distance of 410 feet to right-center field.
Anderson’s two-run shot snapped a franchise-record tying streak of 15 consecutive solo home runs hit by the White Sox, a stretch that dated back to June 23.
So when his team tacked on a pair of runs in the eighth inning to pad a 1-run lead Quintana was more than a little excited. Brett Lawrie hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the fifth before Navarro belted a drive to left field for his fifth homer. Chase Headley’s two-run homer in the third, his second of the series, pushed the lead to 4-0. Frazier drove in Eaton with a single in the next at-bat to finish the scoring.
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“Even as hard as it can be for him to get run support he never wavers as far as his own confidence in what he can do”, manager Robin Ventura said. You have guys like (Chris) Sale and (Jose) Quintana … pitching (so) well.
