The last time the New York Yankees had an eight-game winning streak during any stretch of September, they were not in a daily fight for playoff positioning and were facing the typical pressure of trying to win a World Series title. Next up was Gary Sanchez, and the Rays called for the intentional walk. Youngsters changed the complexion of a team that was not expected to be playing meaningful baseball this month, and teams ahead of the Yankees continued to struggle and allowed them to get back in the AL wildcard picture that narrowed their gap also for the division title.
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Sanchez homered and almost launched another as Tampa Bay messed up an intentional walk, leading the hard-charging Yankees to their season-best seventh straight win, 5-1 over the Rays on Saturday. Although this year is similar to his rookie season of 2014, Tanaka said he feels more in control even if his high standards are not quite good enough. “In that (extremely optimistic) August 1st recap, I wrote “[the Yankees] probably aren’t going to play.600 ball the rest of the way and make the playoffs”. The Yankees have a 15-54 record when opponents outhit them. And in the third he allowed three more hits, including a homer and a double (on one of two balls LF Corey Dickerson could have played better) then threw a wild pitch that scored a run.
New York Yankees’ Brian McCann follows through on a solo home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in New York. Derek Norris added a two-run homer in the eighth.
Seager’s home run off Jake Diekman, his career-high 27th, put the Mariners up 6-3 in the seventh. “I’m emptying the tank, I want to be a big part of this team”. Catcher Bobby Wilson stood to the side of the plate, and reliever Enny Romero tossed a 51-mph floater in that general direction.
Catcher Bobby Wilson moved wide as reliever Enny Romero lobbed in his first pitch at 52 miles per hour, but the ball drifted close to the plate. He swung at the attempted free pass and sent a near home run to the warning track.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before”, Souza said of the three interruptions.
From the dugout, Rays manager Kevin Cash seemed to say, “What happened?”
Up to a point, that is. Tanaka finished with 10 strikeouts, five hits and a hit batsman and left to a standing ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 33,460. Logan Forsythe has hit 119 times with 67 runs and 47 RBI.
An All-Star previous year, Archer leads the majors in the losses this season – James Shields, who has lost 17 with the Padres and White Sox, pitched Saturday night. “Archer’s been pitching really well”, Girardi said. He almost had a third home run in the ninth off Enny Romero but flied out to the warning track in deep right field.
NY was ahead 3-0 before Morrison and Souza hit consecutive home runs in the fourth, the first into the luxury suites below the third deck in right, the second off the left-field foul pole. On paper they were worse, sure, but you couldn’t tell from that one game.
Said Archer: “A lot of that is in the past”. “You know he’s a veteran hitter, I left a cookie out there for him and he capitalized”, he said. Morrison was hit on the right shoulder by a pitch from Tommy Layne leading off the eighth.
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The over is 10-1 in Tampa Bay’s last 11 road games and is 10-1 in their last 11 on grass while going is 27-6 in their last 33 overall. When they did the same thing after the Yankees lost to the Rays and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, the computers dropped them to 13.2 percent. The last Tampa Bay pitcher to lose eight straight decisions was Dan Wheeler in 2007-08. Pineda is 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA over his past three starts. The Yankees have won all four games he’s started.
