Home NYC Teams New York Yankees

New York Yankees Fall Harmlessly To The Houston Astros, 5-3 (Highlights)

By
Christian Kouroupakis
-

Masahiro Tanaka and the New York Yankees fall harmlessly to Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros at The Stadium on Opening Day.

  • Houston Astros: 5 (1-0)
  • New York Yankees: 3 (0-1)
  • American League, Final, Box Score
  • Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

Final Thoughts:

It’s one game. Don’t overreact to a loss on Opening Day, simply because it’s Opening Day. It’s one game.

In the end, while he did show promising flashes, Masahiro Tanaka was solid. His final line of two runs and four strikeouts on four hits over 5.2 innings will neither make you feel cozy with him as your ace, or have you feel horrible.

NYY_300_250_v1

As far as the offense was concerned, forget the big, veteran names in the middle of the lineup. It turned out to be the middle infield who produced. Starlin Castro finished 1-for-3 with 2 RBI, while Didi Gregorius collected the only home run.

The teams will get right back at it tomorrow at the Stadium.

9th Inning:

Houston turns to Luke Gregerson in effort to shut the door on the Yanks, and shut the door he did. He retired the Yanks one-two-three, in order.

Through 1.1 innings, rookie Johnny Barbato has looked tremendous. He’s tallied three strikeouts and hasn’t allowed a hit. His only baserunner was a hit-by-pitch. Onto the bottom of the ninth we go.

8th Inning (5-3 Astros):

Leading off for the Yankees and facing new Astros pitcher Ken Giles, Didi Gregorius hits the Bombers first home run of the season:

Betances’s final line was 3 R, 1 ER, and 1 H in 0.2 IP. Houston takes a commanding 5-2 lead into the bottom frame.

Dellin Betances came on to pitch the eighth and his year started off with a walk to Altuve.

After Altuve swiped second, Betances threw the ball over the head of Teixeira after trying to make a play on a small roller.

Girardi argued that Correa was running out of the baseline, but the umpires wouldn’t budge and the Astros took a 3-2 lead on the error by Betances. Girardi would go on to protest the ballgame.

Betances would then surrender a two-run single to Valbuena that gave Houston a 5-2 lead. That ended his day, and we can all agree that two walks and a two-run hit was not the ideal start for the 6’8″ reliever.

7th Inning (2-2):

The ballgame remained tied at two with Shreve still on the hill in the seventh inning.

Shreve worked a scoreless inning despite surrendering a hit to pinch hitter Tyler White, the first of his major league career.

Keuchel remained on the mound as the game proceeded into the bottom of the seventh. 2015’s AL CY Young award winner struck out McCann, got Headly to pop out, and struck out Castro for yet another 1-2-3 inning.

6th Inning (2-2):

After retiring the first two batters in the inning, Correa cranked a home run over the auxiliary scoreboard in right. That tied the ball game at two apiece.

It’s the first home run of his sophomore campaign coming off a year in which he won the American League Rookie of the Year award.

It was clear that Tanaka got rusty, especially after he walked Rasmus. Manager Joe Girardi had enough and used lefty Chasen Shreve to finish of the top of the sixth.

Tanaka’s final line: 87 pitches, 5.2 inn, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s.

Keuchel settled down nicely after giving up two runs in the second, and retired the Yankees in order yet again.

5th Inning (2-1 Yankees):

After Tanaka got Luis Valbuena to ground out to Castro, he surrendered a double to right field off the bat of Preston Tucker.

Thankfully for the Yankee ace, he was able to avoid any further trouble after striking out Marwin Gonzalez and getting Jason Castro to ground out to the mound.

Through five, Tanaka has four strikeouts and has not walked a single a batter.

In the bottom of the inning, the bombers went down 1-2-3.

4th Inning (2-1 Yankees):

Tanaka, who pitched three innings of work, Altuve lined one over the head of Hicks to give the Astros their first hit of 2016.

A slow roller up the third base lined allowed George Springer to reach first and put runners on the corners with no outs.

Next, Correa grounded into a fielder’s choice on a sharp ground ball to third, allowing Altuve to score.

The Astros then started to play some small ball to get underneath the skin of Tanaka. Following a stolen base for Correa, Colby Rasmus bunted him over to third.

With a runner at third with two outs, Tanaka was able to strike out Carlos Gomez to end the threat.

After a McCann single in the bottom of the fourth, a strikeout from Headley and double play off the bat of Castro ended the frame.

3rd Inning (2-0 Yankees):

Teixeira then worked a walk but Beltran ended the inning on a pop out to Jose Altuve. However, Keuchel’s pitch count climbed to 60 through three innings of work.

Ellsbury popped out and Hicks went down on strikes to start off the inning. A-Rod worked a walk and then swiped second with his blazing speed (insert sarcasm).

Tanaka continues his dominance after retiring the Astros in order. Nine up, nine down for Houston as Ellsbury will lead off the bottom of the inning for the Bombers.

2nd Inning (2-0 Yankees): 

This was the first Yankee run off Keuchel. The lefty was 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 2015.

Following a Carlos Beltran single, a Brian McCann walk, and a Chase Headley fielder’s choice, Starlin Castro ripped a two-run double to earn himself a warm welcome to the Bronx.

Tanaka dazzles again in the second with another 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. Mark Teixeira is due up in his first regular season game since he broke his leg last season.

Looks like John Oliver came through with his 25-cents legends tickets, selling them to ninja turtles.

1st Inning (0-0):

Hicks walked in his fist Yankee at bat, but A-Rod grounded into an inning-ending double play.

A quick 1-2-3 first inning for Tanaka capped off with a strikeout. Jacoby Ellsbury, Aaron Hicks, and Alex Rodriguez due up in the bottom of the first.

Pageantry:

Following the national anthem, 2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui threw out the ceremonial first pitch. From the rubber, “Godzilla” threw a perfect strike to Brian McCann. We’re ready for baseball!

The presentation of color was done by the West Point Cadet Color Guard following by a beautiful national anthem by Carmen Cusack, the star of the Broadway musical “Bright Star.”

The Yankees were introduced, as usual, to the classic Star Wars theme song. As noted in spring training, the Yankees will continue to wear the number eight on their left sleeve in honor of Yogi Berra. 

The Houston Astros were just announced. They’re going with their bright orange uniforms for Opening Day.

PREGAME:

Every year the New York Yankees have one goal. Mother nature had her say, but the path to that goal starts now.

It’s time for ace Masahiro Tanaka and the New York Yankees to pay back those Houston Astros for an early exit last October. It’s time for the Bronx Bombers to move past the question marks, concerns, and doubt.

27-times the Yankees have been called the game’s best and it’s time for the greatest sports franchise in sports to re-take the throne.

Locked and loaded with an epic bullpen, young faces, and a veteran presence that have hoisted the trophy before, they couldn’t be any hungrier.

The young Astros team led by ace Dallas Keuchel, young phenom Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve will be a tall task, but the Yankees are destined to prove that the old dogs aren’t done yet.

The start of another season of Yankee baseball begins today, and ESNY has you covered with a live stream of opening day festivities, pageantry, and the ballgame between the Yankees and Astros (you’re welcome Comcast customers).

BREAKING: According to Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network, Bryan Mitchell underwent toe surgery and will miss at least four months.

NOTE: Brett Gardner is not in the starting lineup. Gardner, who was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts against Keuchel in the Wild Card game, was benched in favor of Aaron Hicks (2-for-5, HR vs Keuchel).


NYY_728_90_v1

-Follow ESNY - Elite Sports NY on Google News to keep up with the latest New York sports news.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR