The Yankees won a game Sunday night in part because the Angels fell apart in the bottom of the eighth, but if they are going to avoid another baseball-free October, Mark Teixeira’s game-tying blast in the seventh may prove to be even more important.
“It was a good swing,” Teixeira said following the Yankees 3-2 win in The Bronx. “I haven’t had one of those in quite a while, since before the surgery, before the injury, really. It’s a good sign.”
In the next breath, Teixeira repeated again that he still thinks about his surgically repaired wrist. But he was able to turn on a Garrett Richards pitch and send it deep into the right-field seats.
“I want to keep doing that, obviously,” Teixeira said. “Hopefully, this is the first step to a lot of those.”
The blast helped save Masahiro Tanaka from his first regular-season loss since Aug. 19, 2012, when he was with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. An inning later, the Yankees went ahead.
Angels reliever Michael Kohn (1-1) began by walking Ellsbury to start the Yankees rally. Kohn repeatedly threw over to first and while the righty managed to strike out Derek Jeter, he walked Carlos Beltran on four pitches before being yanked for Nick Maronde, who wasn’t any better.
With Brian McCann at the plate, catcher Chris Iannetta barely got his glove on a passed ball that allowed Ellsbury and Beltran to advance a base. Then Maronde let loose a wild pitch, scoring Ellsbury from third to give the Yankees the lead.
“It’s a hassle when you have to watch him on the bases, knowing what he could possibly do,” Joe Girardi said of the speedy Ellsbury.
When asked if Ellsbury had the green light in that situation, Girardi said with a smile: “I’m not going to tell you always what I’m going to do. He was 52-for-56 [in stolen-base attempts] last year.”
David Robertson, who had a 26-pitch save on Saturday, finished off the Angels again for his fourth save of the year, this time needing 24 pitches.
Robertson struck out Raul Ibanez with the tying run on second to end it.
“He’s had a ton of big hits here,” Girardi said of the former Yankee. “I don’t like seeing him at the plate in that situation.”
It seemed like Robertson might not have a chance to get in the game when Tanaka put the Yankees in a 2-1 hole, when David Freese hit an opposite-field homer to right-center on the first pitch of the sixth inning.
A visibly disgusted Tanaka retired the last four batters he faced before being removed with one out in the seventh for Adam Warren.
Even before the Freese homer, Tanaka’s already famous control failed him against the Angels. He walked twice as many batters in the first four innings on Sunday (four) as he had in his first four starts (two).
Despite the no-decision, Tanaka continued to show flashes of dominance, striking out 11 in 6 1/3 innings, but he was hurt by the walks and his first hit by pitch.
Tanaka pitched out of trouble consistently until giving up his first run when J.B. Shuck’s fielder’s choice scored Erick Aybar before Cowgill struck out for a second time to end the inning.
The Yankees tied the game in the bottom of the fifth when Teixeira led off with a walk and Brian Roberts doubled him to third. Ichiro’s groundout to short made it 1-1.
Warren pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Tanaka to improve to 1-1.
And Teixeira’s homer gave the Yankees confidence there will be more of them.
“That’s what we’re used to Mark doing,” Girardi said. “Big hits, big RBIs.”