NEW YORK – At the start of a tough week for his team, Masahiro Tanaka made things look easy on the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays again.
Tanaka pitched a career-best two-hitter with 10 strikeouts for his fourth major league shutout, and the New York Yankees beat Tampa Bay 3-0 on Monday night to increase their slim lead in the AL East.
“You could tell he could smell the finish line,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Big-time performance to kick off this series for us.”
DJ LeMahieu hit a two-run homer off Yonny Chirinos (7-3), and Cameron Maybin went deep in his career-high third consecutive game. That was all a dominant Tanaka (5-5) needed while throwing 76 of 111 pitches for strikes in New York’s first complete game since his gem at Tampa Bay last July.
“I’m pretty surprised at such a good result,” Tanaka said. “I don’t think I did anything particularly well, I just think I threw a lot of effective pitches and was able to stack up the outs.”
Tanaka walked only one and set down the final 10 Rays batters, striking out six.
Giants 3, Dodgers 2
In Los Angeles, Tyler Beede allowed one run over six innings to earn his first big-league victory and San Francisco defeated the first-place Dodgers in the opener of a four-game set.
Los Angeles starter Kenta Maeda (7-4) gave up two runs and three hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Angels 10, Blue Jays 5
In Toronto, Justin Upton homered on the first pitch he saw in his return from the injured list, Mike Trout had a solo homer among his four hits and Los Angeles used a seven-run second inning to beat Toronto.
Shohei Ohtani also connected in the second for the Angels. Ohtani’s blast, his ninth of the season, was a three-run shot to left. He finished 2-for-5 in the win.
In Other Games
Braves 12, Mets 3
Reds 3, Astros 2
Cardinals 5, Marlins 0
Rangers 7, Indians 2
Red Sox 2, Twins 0
Athletics 3, Orioles 2
Royals 6, Mariners 4
Padres 2, Brewers 0
Phillies at Nationals — ppd.
Source : Baseball – The Japan Times
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