Yankees defeat Orioles behind Greene:
The big news surrounding the New York Yankees these days is that of Masahiro Tanaka’s injury. With that, the club is looking for pitchers to step up in a major way. Perhaps, maybe, an Aaron Small like miracle is needed (see 2005 Yankees).
On Saturday, rookie Shane Greene received the start for the bombers and was dominant in a Yankee victory over the Baltimore Orioles, 3-0, according to CBSSports.com. For Greene, it was his second career start in the majors as he threw four-hit ball through 7.1 innings. He fanned nine and walked two as the youngster did not allow a hit until the fifth inning.
Greene has now won his first-two starts for the Yankees, both coming in the past six-days. This is exactly the type of performance this team needs as they continue to truck-on without four-fifths of their opening-day rotation (Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova). While Sabathia and Ivan Nova are gone for the season, Tanaka and Pineda still have a shot to get back.
The offense will need to pick up the slack as well as the Yanks currently rank 17th in the majors in runs scored (371), according to MLB.com. Derek Jeter helped the offense today with two-hits and an RBI and the much-maligned Yankee-catcher Brian McCann went three for four.
David Robertson came on to pitch a perfect ninth-inning for his 23rd save. The win improves the Yankees record to 47-46 as they now trail the Orioles by three-games in the division.
X-Rays on McCann’s foot come back negative:
Brian McCann’s injured foot which has been plaguing him for a while now was put to the test today. X-rays were conducted and everything came back clean. McCann missed two-games against the Minnesota Twins over a week ago. The Yankees are hopeful that McCann gets back to his pre-2014 form now that these foot-concerns are behind him.