The New York Yankees were destroyed by the Washington Nationals on Wednesday afternoon after starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka struggled mightily.
- New York Yankees: 0 (9-10)
- Washington Nationals: 13 (14-4)
- Grapefruit League, FINAL, Box Score
- Space Coast Stadium, Viera, FL
By Christian Kouroupakis
Today just wasn’t a good day for the New York Yankees.
After defeating their cross town rivals, the New York Mets, in the Spring Training addition of the Subway Series, they traveled to Viera to square off with the Washington Nationals.
Masahiro Tanaka got the starting nod for the fourth time this season, and turned in the poorest performance thus far.
In the first inning, the Washington Nationals got on the board thanks to an Anthony Rendon RBI double to right that scored Ben Revere. The Nats took a 1-0 lead and wouldn’t let up.
After a scoreless second inning from Tanaka, his former teammate, Stephen Drew, cranked a long home run to right field that landed on top of the batting cages.
Stephen Drew: BOOM! A leadoff home run to right field and the #Nats push their lead to 2-0!
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 23, 2016
That was just the start of a six run inning for Washington. Tanaka gave up back to back RBIs to Zimmerman and Jayson Werth to make the score 4-0.
Next, Zimmerman scored on a Chris Heisey double to make it 5-0 and then Jhonatan Solano hit a two run shot to right to extend the Nationals’ lead to 7-0.
#HornsUP! Wilson Ramos gets in on the fun with a home run to right and the #Nats push their lead to 7-0.
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 23, 2016
Tanaka, who’s hoping to start on Opening Day, was finished after four innings. He surrendered seven earned runs and gave up nine hits, two of which were home runs.
Nick Goody, Luis Cessa, and Johnny Barbato held the Nationals to zero runs on one hit in three innings while striking out four, but the Nats weren’t done yet.
In the bottom of the eighth, with Anthony Swarzak on the hill, the Yankees committed four errors (two by Cesar Puello) to help Washington score six runs, none of which were earned.
Eight full in the books, #Nats up, 13-0!
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 23, 2016
That would be the last of the scoring as the Nationals went on to win 13-0 in a game that the Yankees will try and forget.
FINAL: Nationals 13, #Yankees 0. #NYYSpring
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) March 23, 2016
New York’s offense went relatively quiet, getting shutout yet again. They were able to get ten hits, but thanks to being 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and leaving eight runners on base, no runs crossed the plate.
Brett Gardner was the lone bright spot for the Bombers, as he went 2-for-3 in his fourth game of Spring Training action.
The Yankees will head back to Tampa to play host to the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Thursday night. CC Sabathia will take the mound as he continues his quest to prove there’s still something left in the tank.
First pitch will be at 6:35.
