Mashairo Tanaka welcome to Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball meet Mashairo Tanaka.
It wasn't easy early on, but Tanaka settled in and delivered a solid performance in his first regular season game in pinstripes.
Given an early 2-0 lead, Tanaka couldn't hold it -- maybe he had some early butterflies in his first start. He gave up a solo home run to Melky Cabrera on the third pitch of the first inning to cut the Yankees lead in half; and in the second inning, surrendered a two-run single to Jonathan Diaz to put Toronto in front 3-2.
It would be the last time the Blue Jays would score on Tanaka.
From that point Tanaka gave up only two hits and shutout down a very solid Blue Jays lineup. It was the kind of dominating performance that allowed his team to not only come back, but it sent the message that Tanaka is indeed ready for this new challenge in his career.
The Yankees chose a good day to come out of their offensive doldrums. They pounded out 16 hits with all but Brian Roberts getting a hit on Friday. The bottom of the order was huge again, with Ichiro Suzuki collecting two hits, and new surprising youngster Yangervis Solarte putting up two more hits and driving in three runs.
It was Solarte's two run double in the third inning that put New York up for good, 4-3. He would add another RBI on his second double of the day in the ninth. Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, Brett Gardner, and Brian McCann also had RBI's for the Yankees.
With the win the Yankees pull to .500 (2-2) on the young season. So much for all the early panic, the Yankees are a half game out of first behind Tampa Bay.
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