April 27, 2014, Bronx, N.Y. — I’m not a big fan of the Yankees hosting ESPN Sunday night games, particularly in too cold April in New York. Two weeks ago, the Yanks prevailed over the Red Sox in three hours and eight minutes, while we got 20 more minutes of baseball this Sunday night against the Angels. But I’ll have to grudgingly give up that complaint, because both were hugely gripping games, and both were 3-2 wins for the home team.

The stands were filled with fans perhaps more into the games than has become usual, and very confident too, both likely trends due to the presence of Masahiro Tanaka toeing the mound for the 8:07 first pitch. It has taken very little time for the Bronx faithful to embrace the Japanese righthander with the incredible string of regular season victories — in Japan, and now in the USA.

And although Masahiro did not disappoint this night, as a starter he had to take a back seat to his opponent, Anaheim righty Garrett Richards. Tanaka, it is true, struck out the side in the first, twice whiffed two in a frame, and retired 10 on strikes through six innings. But he allowed two base runners in the first, three in the fourth, when Anaheim took a 1-0 lead, and at least one in each of the first six innings.

Part of his problem was control; he was sending batters back to their dugout shaking their heads, but he was walking some too, one each the first four innings. There was a hit by pitch too, though just five hits. Two, however, were leadoff doubles, and one a home run. There is nothing wrong with a line of two runs on five hits, four walks, and 11 strike outs — he added another leading off the seventh — it often will win you a game. But Richards was throwing better.

Pounding the zone with several kinds of fast balls, all of them hard, and all of them tailing one way or diving another, Garrett looked unhittable. He retired the first six, and the fact that Kelly Johnson reached on a roller through the vacated shortstop hole in an overshifted infield in the third did not diminish the Anaheim righthander’s aura of invincibility. The Yankees were, quite simply, hitting nothing hard. He survived the Johnson single, and a one-out walk in the fourth, but not a leadoff free pass in the fifth to Mark Teixeira. This led to a run when Brian Roberts doubled with one down, and Ichiro Suzuki bounced a fielder’s choice run-scoring grounder to short.

The newly forged 1-1 tie did not survive one pitch into the sixth, as DH David Freese homered to right. With one down in the seventh, Tanaka, down 2-1, was relieved by Adam Warren, who kept the baserunners (at least) an inning trend going by quickly surrendering a single. But Warren coaxed an Albert Pujols 6-4-3, and then struck out two in a one-two-three — finally — eighth. Only by then, things had changed. Because if another stellar start from Tanaka, along with superb bullpen work, was the biggest story, the manner of the way the Yanks tied this game at 2-2 in the seventh was second biggest. It’s been a long month awaiting the sight of a solid, power, lefthanded swing from Teixeira. The fairly low ba is an April staple, and he did clear the monster in Fenway batting righty last week. But when he drilled a no-doubt-it blast to the second deck in right leading off the home seventh, the game was tied, and fans breathed a sigh of relief. Welcome back, Tex.

Richards finished that inning, but then the game was in the bullpens, and the Yanks won that battle with seeming ease, if not with hits. Warren was dominant in the eighth, while righthander Michael Kohn had trouble throwing strikes, walking two of the three batters he faced, Jacoby Ellsbury on five pitches, Carlos Beltran on four. Southpaw Nick Maronde came on and eventually hit Brian McCann with a pitch, but not until a Chris Iannetta passed ball and his own wild pitch handed the home team a 3-2 lead. After throwing 26 tosses to record his third save Saturday, David Robertson was pushed to 24 more to cash this one in around a one-out walk. But his second strike out (of ex-Yank Raul Ibanez) secured the 3-2 win, and a 15-strike-out night for the Yankee staff.

Tanaka threw 71 of 108 pitches for strikes, and picked a good day to coax 21 swings and misses with the 11 K’s, 10 of them swinging. It was April 27, 1983, that Nolan Ryan took over the all-time strike out crown from Walter Johnson with his 3,509th. Leading the way, with Warren and Robertson following, Masahiro got the Angels on their way swinging and missing 29 times. But the measly three hits the Yanks came up with are a concern. They scored their go-ahead run on two walks, a passed ball, a wild pitch, and later, a hit by pitch.

This day was the 66th birthday of vocalist Kate Pierson of the popular New Wave rock band, the B-52s. With partner Monica Coleman, on the band’s hit “Roam,” Kate sings,

Roam if you want to, roam around the world
Roam if you want to, without wings, without wheels

In Sunday’s eighth inning, Jacoby Ellsbury covered some important territory “without base hits, without sacrifices.” He roamed,

Around the Bases

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!