Game Recap: Yankees can’t back up Tanaka vs. O’s

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

What a perfect day it would have been. Old Timers Day in the Bronx, a plaque honoring Goose Gossage, and for the finale, Masahiro Tanaka starting the game for the Yanks today. It’s almost unfair we expect Tanaka to win almost every game but that is what we’ve come to with his dominance. Unfortunately that was not the case today.

Chris Tillman got the start for Baltimore today and came in with a 4.82 ERA. With how sluggish the Yankee’s offense is against pitchers with bloated ERAs, you can imagine the trend of this game.

The Yankees offence did nearly nothing the entire game. In fact, they only picked up four hits. This game was all Baltimore. In the top of the second, Jonathan Schoop homered to left to give the O’s a 1-0 lead. The score would stay that way until the seventh when Tanaka seemed to begin tiring.

J.J. Hardy was on third and Manny Machado on second when Schoop picked up an RBI on a ground out. With Machado now on third, Caleb Joseph hit a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-0 game. Any hope of the Yankees coming from behind was gone by the eighth inning.

At this point, both Tanaka and Tillman were done. Tanaka went seven innings giving up three runs on six hits while Tillman outdualed the Yankees ace with a line of no runs on four hits also in seven innings.

In that eighth inning however, with Adam Warren now in, Hardy hit a bases clearing double to make it 6-0 until Machado followed with an RBI base knock extending the Baltimore’s lead to seven. The final run of the game came off a Caleb Joseph home run. T.J. McFarland closed out the Orioles’ win with two innings of relief to give them an 8-0 victory.

Luckily for the Yankees, Toronto also lost so the Bombers didn’t lose any ground. Also great news for the Yankees is the fact Brett Lawrie broke his hand and will be heading to the D.L. and Jose Bautista left the game with tightness in his left leg making the outfielder questionable for the upcoming series beginning Monday as the Yankees go north of the border.