New York Post - 06.08.2019

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New York Post, Tuesday, August 6, 2019

nypost.com

TUESDAY—7:05

RHP JonathanHolder

(5-2,6.28)vs. RHP

AsherWojciechows ki

(2-4, 4.15)

WEDNESDAY—7:05

LHP JamesPaxton

(6-6, 4.61)vs.

LHPJohnMeans

(8-6, 3.12)

Both games on YES,

WFAN (101.9 FM; 660 AM)

YANKEES:Gleyber

Torres’ four multi-

homergames against

the Oriolesthis season

are tied forthe most

by a player against

an opponent ina

season all time, joining

Ralph Kiner (1947vs.

Boston Braves), Gus

Zernial (1951vs. St.

Louis Browns) and

Roy Sievers (1955vs.

Kansas CityA’s).

ORIOLES:Hanser

Albertohas a .406

battingaverage

againstleft-handed

pitchers, the highest

average against

lefties inthe majors

aheadof Manny

Machado(.392) and

J.D. Martinez (.390).

ON DECK

atORIOLES

STAT SO?

INSIDE THE MATCHUPS

YANKEES:This turn

in the rotationwould

normally belong to

CC Sabathia,but he

was placed onthe IL

Thursday withright

knee inflammation.

Aaron Boone will

turn to Holder and

the bullpen, withthe

effective ex-Oriole

Nestor Cortes Jr. also

available.The Yanks

are 10-0 in bullpen

gamesthis season.

ORIOLES:After

two brilliant starts,

Wojciechowski took

a step inthe wrong

direction inhis last

outing, allowing

four runs ina loss

to Toronto. He’s still

impressingthe O’s

withhis swing-

and-miss stuff,the

30-year-oldright-

hander hasfanned

10.9 batters per nine

innings in seven

games with Baltimore.

By GEORGE A. KING III

BALTIMORE — One former ace

hasn’t thrown a big-league pitch

this season and another is posting

numbers that would get a less ac-

complished pitcher released.

While the Yankees continue to

hope Luis Severino will return at

some point they have to be con-

cerned about the recent skid Masa-

hiro Tanaka has hit.

Working against the pathetic Ori-

oles on Monday night at Camden

Yards, Tanaka was staked to a five-

run lead in the top of the sixth,

traded a run for the only out he re-

corded and was replaced by

Tommy Kahnle who gave up a two-

run homer to Jonathan Villar that

tied the score.

Fortunately for the Yankees,

Tanaka’s subpar outing didn’t stop

their winning streak, which reached

six games via a 9-6 victory in front

of a small, but pro-Yankee crowd of

20,151.

Coupled with the second-place

Rays losing to the Blue Jays the Yan-

kees’ win pushed their AL East lead

to nine lengths and was highlighted

by clutch performances from lesser

lights in the lineup.

Mike Tauchman hit two opposite-

field homers and Austin Romine,

Brett Gardner and Mike Ford also

homered to raise the Yankees’ long-

ball total at Camden Yards to 32 this

season — a major league record for

a visiting team in an opponent’s

park.

As for Tanaka, who started the

season with a 64-34 big-league re-

cord and a 3.59 ERA, the last eight

starts have been a nightmare that

needs to end if the Yankees are go-

ing to play deep into October.

Aaron Boone said Tanaka’s call-

ing-card splitter, which has misbe-

haved a lot this season, flattened out

in the sixth when the

light-hitting Jace

Peterson hit a two-

run homer and

Tanaka gave up

three other hits.

Tanaka appears to

be puzzled by what

has happened in his

last eight starts in

which he is 2-1 with

a bloated 9.08 ERA

and has given up 56

hits and 14 walks in

37 ²/₃ innings. Ten of

the hits are home

runs.

“It’s been really

frustrating. In recent

games giving up

runs like that,’’

Tanaka said of the

sixth. “One inning,

big runs. I really

need to turn that around. I’ll take

the positives [control

of the splitter] of this

game, but I will make

the necessary adjust-

ments to come back

strong the next

time.’’

After Kahnle gave

up the two-run

homer to Villar, who

hit for the cycle, in

the sixth, Adam Ot-

tavino worked a per-

fect seventh, Ford

and Tauchman hom-

ered to give the Yan-

kees a 9-6 led in the

eighth and Zack Brit-

ton and Aroldis

Chapman didn’t al-

low a run in the final

two frames.

Chapman posted

his 30th save in 35

chances and sealed the victory

by blowing away Renato Nunez on

three pitches for the final out. The

first two were clocked at 100 mph

and the final one at 102.

Maybe on another night against a

team not named the Orioles, Tanaka

wouldn’t have been bailed out by a

lineup which is missing big names

for long stretches of time but con-

tinues to hum thanks to guys like

Tauchman.

Still, that was no consolation to

Tanaka.

“It is obviously great they came

back for us,’’ Tanaka said of the

three-run eighth that sealed the win.

“Having good offense and you are

not doing your job well enough, it

kind of makes it more frustrat-

ing.’’

If it was an occasional bad

start it would be easier to be-

lieve Tanaka’s trap-door

splitter would arrive for an

extended stay. Yet, eight

starts represents almost

a third of his outings

and those numbers

over that long of a

stretch don’t in-

still confi-

dence that it

is about to

turn

around.

george.

king@

nypost.

com

Journeyman’s two homers help

no-name Yankees prop up Tanaka

YANKEES 9

ORIOLES 6

Boxscore

Page 36

Mike

Tauchman

In Monday

night’s win

over the

Orioles

the

outfielder

launched two

opposite-field

homers to left

to raise his

season HR total

to nine.