Tanaka earned his first win of the season after a pair of no-decision bids while Iwakuma falls to 0-2 after Sunday’s defeat. His former teammate from 2007-2011 with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball labored at times also but eventually settled down to enjoyed a solid outing of his own.
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“I was very excited to face… your ex-teammate”, Iwakuma said, also via an interpreter. “Just watching him in general, he was pitching with composure”.
“I think it’s big news back there”, Iwakuma told the Seattle Times before the game.
Like Tanaka, Iwakuma worked seven, yielding four runs and eight hits.
Masahiro Tanaka topped old pal Hisashi Iwakuma in the first major league pitching matchup of former Japanese teammates, a game that was broadcast live on television back home – at 2 a.m.in Tokyo.
“There’s a little cultural difference”. “And had him analyze what I should analyze and I went from there”.
While Yankees stars of yesteryear often complained about their spot in the order, Rodriguez, who hit third in every game he played this season until Sunday’s, did not.
As noted by River Ave Blues, it was the 12th time that Japanse-born pitchers were slated against each other. When you’re playing well, you get moved up.
A-Rod’s second homer of the year followed Brian McCann being hit by a pitch, giving the Yanks (5-6) a 2-1 lead in the second inning. A season after hitting 33 home runs, A-Rod is batting.
Alex Rodriguez took an immediate liking to his new spot lower in the batting order.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi insisted on Sunday that 10 games is not enough of a sample size to be particularly meaningful in the course of a 162-game baseball season.
“Nothing is ever permanent”, Girardi said. “If he doesn’t, you’re going to question should he have dove for it. I thought he gave a really good effort and he came up a little bit short, so that doesn’t frustrate me”.
The Mariners closed up on the Yankees as the game developed when Mark Teixeira made an error that allowed Seattle to push two runs towards home.
PHILADELPHIA – Freddy Galvis hit an RBI double off Jonathan Papelbon with two outs in the 10th inning to lift Philadelphia over Washington. They had two hits that didn’t score runs because some of the Yankees are pretty slow, man. The last hit with runners in scoring position that scored a run prior to Gardner’s double was Jacoby Ellsbury’s go-ahead bloop single in the seventh inning of the series opener in Toronto.
Harder to dismiss has been the Yankees’ stunning futility in run-scoring situations.
With the lead through seven innings, the Yankees turned to their dominant back-end of the bullpen.
Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller each struck out the side in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to finish the game.
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The Rockies (7-5) won their fourth game in five starts, while the Cubs (9-3) suffered their second loss in three games and dropped their first series of the season. RHP Michael Pineda (1-1, 6.55 ERA) will go against LHP Eric Surkamp (0-1, 4.00) in Tuesday’s series opener.
