Between Monday’s extra inning game, and the close games on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Yankees bullpen has been taxed of late. They could have really used a good outing from Masahiro Tanaka to wrap up the series against the Angels.
For a while, it looked like they were getting that. Tanaka got through the first couple innings hitless, and generally cruised early on. The Yankees’ offense got him a couple early runs, and things looked pretty good for them to finish off the sweep. Then the fifth inning started.
Tanaka’s home run bugaboo appeared in fifth, and saw him knocked out of the game the following inning.