Bronx NY April 28, 2015- Yankees have seem to put the pieces together and are hitting their stride winners of ten out of their last twelve games the Yankees have been one of the hottest teams in baseball. The bats are starting to come alive and the bullpen looks as good as it has ever been in recent memory. Last night was all about Brian McCann as the bleacher creatures love to chant “who can McCann can” and he did driving in three of the teams four runs for a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees are 5-0 against the Rays this year and look to go for the sweep tonight when Drew Smyly faces
Michael Pineda. Michael Pineda seems to be back to his dominance form since he was a rookie phenome with the Seattle Mariners. In Pineda’s last start on Friday when he faced Jacob Degrom and the Mets he pitched 7 and 2/3 of lights out baseball holding the Mets to one run in the game bringing him to 3-0 on the season tonight he looks to go 4-0 for the streaking Yankees. The Bullpen has been outstanding this year Since April 22, the Yankees’ bullpen has gone 3-0 with four saves and a 0.77 ERA, walking five and striking out 30 in 23 1/3 innings.
Long reliever Esmil Rogers got the gold star on Tuesday when he pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of one-hit relief. Rogers walked one and struck out five, with a wild pitch, and Martin pitched around a two-out single to lock down the save. They also have another weapon in the bullpen by the name of Dellin Betances who set the record for strikeouts in a season by a relief pitcher last year when he struck out an astonishing 135 batters in 90 innings of work he was also 5-0 with a 1.40 ERA. This year he is off to another fast start with 17 strikeouts in 11.1 innings of work and a 3-0 record with an ERA of 0.00, if Betances keeps this up he can perhaps be the future Mariano Rivera.
With the positive’s the Yankees have experienced the previous two weeks they also suffered a crushing blow on Tuesday when they were told that Masahiro Tanaka will be sidelined for a month with what was diagnosed as wrist tendinitis and a forearm strain in his throwing arm. An MRI Tuesday revealed a Grade 1 strain of his right forearm and tendinitis in his right wrist, according to general manager Brian Cashman. Tanaka had been scheduled to start Wednesday against the Rays, but instead went on the 15-day disabled list a day after he arrived at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday reporting discomfort in his wrist. The Yankees said that the MRI showed no changes to Tanaka’s partially torn elbow ligament. Tanaka will refrain from throwing for seven to 10 days and then will have to rebuild his stamina with a Minor League rehab assignment. Tanaka is 2-1 with a 3.22 ERA in four starts this season and said he aims to return as soon as possible. This news was a blow to the Yankee organization as they look to solidify their lead in the AL east and will have to do so now with their best pitcher on the sideline.
PureSportsNY: Jose Gonzalez