OUTDUELED

It was a battle of pitching talent last night.  On paper, and with the season he's had, you just expected Masahiro Tanaka to win it.  It was close the whole way through, but in the end, the also talented Jon Lester pulled out the win and now, with Yankee panic happening, some are wondering if the Tanaka-train has lost his chug. 

Are you kidding? Let's not do that ladies and gentlemen... you can't look at this loss and wonder what has happened to Tanaka.  It's baseball.  What you do is tip your cap on a really great pitching duel, and you look forward to the next game. It's not like Tanaka gave up 15 runs last night... he gave up 2.  Now, clearly the long ball hurt Tanaka, but he's not the old Phil Hughes... he just needs to harness it, because 1 thing is clear, the guy has 11 wins on the season... he will be fine.

Tanaka went the full 9, giving up 7 hits and 2 runs.  I think he's completed 3 games this season.  How often do we hear that in Yankeeland? Not much.  Last night Tanaka struck out 8.

The Yankee run scoring off Lester wasn't great.  1 measly run and 5 hits.  That run came when Derek Jeter grounded out and Brian Roberts scored in the process... that's it.

Final: Red Sox 2 - Yankees 1

We'll get'em back today.

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