Yankees survive Tanaka’s brutal start, beat Indians 11-7

Source: FanGraphs

The pre-All-Star break portion of the season is officially over. The Yankees beat the Indians 11-7 on Sunday — they took three of four from the first place Tribe, how about that? — and go into the break with a 44-44 record. They’re 7.5 games back in the AL East and 5.5 games back of the second wildcard spot with six teams ahead of them. The Yankees have given us no reason to believe they can play well enough for long enough to make a serious run at a postseason spot in the second half. Anyway, let’s recap with bullet points, because I’m short on time today:

• Early Runs!: The turning point of this game was home plate umpire Ramon DeJesus calling Carlos Carrasco’s 3-1 pitch to Jacoby Ellsbury a strike in the second inning. It was a ball, here’s the strike zone plot, but DeJesus called it a strike and the at-bat continued. Ellsbury hit a three-run home run on the very next pitch to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. Give DeJesus on assist on that one. Dingers are cooler than walks.
• More Early Runs: The Yankees blew this game open — or saw we thought! — with a six-spot in the fifth inning. There was no big blow. They kept the line moving and strung together three straight two-out hits to drive in runs. The inning featured five singles, one double, one walk, one hit batsman, two sac flies, and a two-run throwing error by Francisco Lindor. The error really set that inning up for New York. The six-run outburst gave the Yankees an 11-1 lead.
• Bad Tanaka: I guess Masahiro Tanaka picked a good time for his worst start of the season. Tanaka’s stuff was flat all game, though he was able to wiggle through the first four innings with just one run allowed. Then it all came apart in the fifth. Tanaka couldn’t get through the inning with a ten-run lead — a Didi Gregorius throwing error didn’t help matters — and allowed six runs in the frame, the last two on Tyler Naquin’s monster two-run homer. It was ugly. Maybe his worst inning as a Yankee. Tanaka finished the game with seven runs (three earned) allowed on ten hits and two walks in 4.2 innings. Yuck.
• Nasty Nate: How about Nathan Eovaldi? With the big three relievers taxed and 13 outs to go with a four-run lead, Eovaldi took the ball the rest of the way. He held the Indians to one hit and three walks in the final 4.1 innings, striking out three. Eovaldi restored order to the game after Tanaka’s dreadful start. Huge performance given the state of the bullpen. Just huge. Nate gets the win, but if there was ever an outing that deserved a save, that’s it.
• Leftovers: The Yankees had 13 hits total, including two each by Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, and Starlin Castro … every starter had a hit except Brett Gardner, who walked and make a number of nice running catches … Gregorius ripped an opposite field double. Castro, Chase Headley, and Austin Romine had two-baggers too … the Yankees went 5-for-16 (.313) with runners in scoring position … Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and Danny Salazar all allowed a season-high in runs this series. Go figure.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Also, don’t miss our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. What’s next? The All-Star break is next. The Yankees and every other team are off until Friday, then they’ll open the second half with a three-game set at home against the Red Sox. Michael Pineda and Eduardo Rodriguez is the scheduled pitching matchup.

Minor League Update: Sorry folks, busy weekend and I don’t have time for a full DotF again. Here are the box scores and here’s the short version: Ben Gamel and Tyler Austin each had two hits, Luis Severino allowed three runs in seven innings, Ian Clarkin allowed two earned runs in four innings, Mandy Alvarez had two more hits, Drew Bridges whacked a homer, Estevan Florial had a hit and two walks, and Wilkerman Garcia had two hits.