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Masahiro Tanaka pitched solid seven innings but couldn't get the win as the Baltimore Orioles spoiled his New York home debut by beating the Yankees 5-4 on Wednesday.
Tanaka struck out 10 batters for the Yankees who signed him to a $155 million seven-year contract in January.
Nick Markakis' one-out hit in the ninth off pitcher Shawn Kelley drove home Ryan Flaherty for the go-ahead run that lifted Baltimore to the win at Yankee Stadium.
Tanaka gave up a three-run homer to Jonathan Schoop in the second inning but was otherwise impressive on Wednesday.
He had a rough second inning, giving up the homer to Schoop, who clobbered a hanging slider into left-field to stake the Orioles to a 3-0 lead.
Tanaka settled down after that and New York got right back in it with two runs in the bottom of the second and one more in the fourth.
Tanaka stranded a pair of runners in the fifth to continue the 3-3 tie and then got out the final seven batters he faced.
He capped his solid performance by striking out Delmon Young to end the top of the seventh.
Tanaka has recorded 18 strikeouts and just one walk over his first 14 innings in Major League Baseball.
© (c) 2014 AFP
5 Comments
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jojo_in_japan
He's given up ding dongs in two consecutive starts ...
Pandabelle
He's fine. His Ks are high, his walks are extremely low, and outside the homers he's been dominant.
danako
Giving up 3 hits including a 3 run dinger in the 2nd doesn't sound like solid inning to me. I would say he pitched 6 solid innings. Yankees had their chance in the 9th. Runners on the corners with 1 out and they couldn't get the run in. Tanaka seems to get stronger in the later innings, too bad he didn't get the win.
David Varnes
Pandabelle, the same could be said about the past few Japanese sensations that have hit the major leagues, including Darvish. They strike out a lot, but they give up a lot of homers. The fact is, most managers would rather have a guy who gives up no homers, even if they strike out nobody.
Time will tell if Tanaka can adjust faster than the Major Leaguers can adjust to his pitching style.
kickboard
Most managers would rather have a guy with a low ERA. Darvish's ERA was 4th in the league, while batters only hit .194 off him.