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Pineda Turns In Masterpiece, New York Yankees Cruise Past Tampa Bay (Highlights)

By
Christian Kouroupakis
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Thanks to a dominant performance by Michael Pineda on Monday against the Rays, the New York Yankees were able to coast to a 7-1 victory. 

  • Tampa Bay Rays: 1 (5-3)
  • New York Yankees: 8 (3-4)
  • American League, FINAL, Box Score
  • Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

Michael Pineda turned in 7.1 innings of complete dominance on Monday to lead the New York Yankees to a 8-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The enigmatic right-hander went 7.2 innings and let up one run on two hits while striking out 11 batters. What the box score doesn’t show, however, is that Pineda put up 6.2 innings perfect innings until Evan Longoria roped a single in the seventh to break it up.

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Offensively, Jacoby Ellsbury got the show started in the bottom of the third inning when he roped a RBI double into the right field gap off Rays’ starter Alex Cobb to score Brett Gardner from first.

One inning later, right fielder Aaron Judge celebrated his first home opener in the Bronx by smacking an absolute bomb to left field to make it 2-0. While Pineda cruised along, third baseman Chase Headley added another with a home run of his own in the bottom of the seventh.

Entering the bottom of the eighth, after Pineda and Tyler Clippard posted a scoreless top of the frame, the Bronx Bombers poured it on by pushing across five runs on five hits, including a two-run home run by Starlin Castro, and two errors by Tampa Bay to blow the contest wide open in the bottom of the eighth.

Letf-handed reliever Tommy Layne came on to close out what was the fifth home opener win at the new Yankee Stadium and New York’s third win of the young season.

Welcome To The Show: 

In the top of the ninth inning, New York’s seventh-round draft pick of the 2008 MLB draft Kyle Higashioka made his major league debut.

In 20 spring training games, he slashed .296/.406/.630 with two home runs and an OPS of 1.036 while also catching three of the five baserunners that attempted to steal off him. Find out more about the first Baby Bomber to make his major league debut in 2017:

There’s No Place Like Home: 

With this win, the Yankees are now 75-39-1 in home openers. 16-4 since 1998, 21-5 since 1992, 27-7 since 1984 and 5-4 at the current Yankee Stadium.

Thanks, Mother Nature: 

The temperature at first pitch today was a comfortable 76 degrees, which is 40 degrees warmer than Opening Day of last season home opener in 2016 (36⁰) and their warmest home opener since Friday, April 22, 1960 (78⁰).

This Day In Yankees History:

On this day in 1998, the Yankees drew the largest regular season crowd in the history of the remodeled Yankee Stadium with 56,717 fans in attendance. New York ended up defeating the Oakland Athletics 17–13.

What’s Next:

For the second game at Yankee Stadium in 2017, the Yankees will send 23-year-old Luis Severino to the hill to square off against  Blake Snell on Wednesday night.

Severino, who is hoping to put a dismal sophomore campaign behind him, is coming off a start against the Baltimore Orioles in which he surrendered four runs in five innings of work and served up a three-run bomb to Manny Machado.

Snell made his major league debut in the Bronx in 2016 and held the Yankees to one run on two hits over five innings including six strikeouts.

First pitch will come your way at 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network and on WFAN 660/101.9 FM.

 NEXT: Matt Holliday’s Obscure Day Puts Him On Exclusive List


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