Start-by-start through the month of August, Masahiro Tanaka has been getting better and better. Finding his splitter after changing the grip, and putting all his pitches together. The 12-run debacle at the hands of Boston on July 25 is now in the distant past, although his last start against Oakland was not masterful. Tonite, Tanaka was in his best form of the season, shutting out Seattle through 7 innings — his line: 7 IP 3 H 0 R 7 K’s. His record is now 10-7 4.47.
This was Tanaka Tuesday, as it often is, and Tanaka August, as it often is — Tanaka has been having strong August’s and September’s for the past few years. And Tanaka has always done well versus Seattle — as @oficial52011_2 pointed out, he entered the game 7-0 2.10 vs Seattle in his career and 4-0 1.70 in T-Mobile park (formally Safeco Field).
🎶 Take your #TanakaTime
Hurry up
The choice is yours, don't be late. 🎶https://t.co/jGJfNYXNapPowered by @Biofreeze pic.twitter.com/RkCukIVLhD
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 28, 2019
Aaron Judge led off the scoring with a 2-run homerun in the 1st — winning for me a personal bet I had with 2 friends as to what Yankee would hit the first homerun in the game; other bets were Gio Urshela and DJ LeMahieu.
Century Clubbed. 💯 #AllRise pic.twitter.com/lZbnC1hA1Q
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 28, 2019
Brett Gardner hit a 3-run homer in the 3rd and that was ballgame. Austin Romine grounded in a run in the 5th and walked with bases loaded in the 9th for the 7-0 final score.
Luis Cessa pitched 2 innings of shutout ball in relief of Tanaka, saving the rest of the bullpen. A perfect game.
Etcetera
Everyone in the Yankee lineup got a hit, except Mike Tauchman who went 0-4. Hopefully he is not going into a slump. DJ LeMahieu got 2 hits to raise his average to .333; Gio Urshela (who will qualify in a few days) went 1-5 to drop his average to .330. Michael Brantley of Houston currently leads with a .337 average.
Judge, LeMahieu, and Gleyber Torres got 2 hits each.
Gary Sanchez went 1-3 with 2 walks — a good sign. He was hot last week and told Alex Rodriguez on Sunday that he felt like he was entering a hitting streak.
Yanks Have Best Record in Baseball
With the win, the 87-47 Yankees tied the Dodgers for best record in baseball, and since they own the tie-breaker — if the two teams were to meet in the World Series, the Yanks would have home field advantage. Houston crushed Tampa to remain .5 behind the Yanks for best record in AL.
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