Yankees’ homer barrage saves alarming Masahiro Tanaka

BALTIMORE — If there was a perfect time for Masahiro Tanaka to show he can return to being the dominant pitcher he used to be, Monday night was it.

Tanaka started against the woeful Orioles at Camden Yards with the Yankees riding a five-game winning streak and looking to open a long stretch of games against the AL East bottom-feeding Orioles and Blue Jays.

And he pitched on a night the Yankees slugged five homers that helped stretch the winning streak to six with a 9-6 victory that was witnessed by a very pro-Yankees crowd of 20,151.

The win combined with the second-place Rays losing to the Blue Jays hiked the Yankees’ AL East lead to nine games.

Mike Ford hit the fourth Yankees homer in the eighth inning that snapped a 6-6 tie and Mike Tauchman’s second home run of the game was a two-run job later in the inning that gave the visitors a 9-6 lead.

Austin Romine and Gardner also took advantage of Camden Yards’ cozy dimensions and a ragged Orioles pitching staff on a muggy evening with homers.

Aroldis Chapman recorded the final three outs for his AL-leading 30th save in 35 chances.

While Tanaka didn’t overpower the Birds through five innings, he limited them to a run but didn’t have a clean inning.

That changed in the sixth when the Orioles combined to score five runs off Tanaka and reliever Tommy Kahnle to tie the score and let the Yankees know they might be awful but they weren’t going to roll over for the team with the best record in the AL.

Handed a 6-1 lead in the top of the sixth, Tanaka surrendered a one-out, two-run homer to Jace Peterson, gave up a single to Hanser Alberto and a double to Chance Sisco that put runners at second and third for Chris Davis. His fly to deep center plated Alberto to make it 6-4 and move Aaron Boone to call for Kahnle to face the switch-hitting Stevie Wilkerson, the No. 9 hitter, with one out.

Kahnle quickly got rid of Wilkerson with a 0-2 changeup for the second out but Jonathan Villar’s towering homer into the right-field seats tied the score, 6-6, and left Tanaka without a chance for his first win since July 20.

Villar’s ninth-inning single gave him the cycle. He tripled in the third, doubled in the fifth and homered in the sixth.
In 5 ¹/₃ innings Tanaka was charged with five runs and gave up 10 hits.

Tanaka has made eight starts from June 22 to Monday night. He is 2-1 with a 9.08 ERA. In 37 ²/₃ innings Tanaka has given up 56 hits and 14 walks. Ten of the hits are homers.

Better numbers than those have led to releases. Of course, that isn’t going to happen but the Yankees would feel a lot better if Tanaka could at least handle an anemic Orioles lineup.

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