Yankees’ Girardi says Tanaka will ‘probably’ start wild-card game

The Sox are 5-10 against the Yankees this season, their worst record among A.L. East opponents. Tanaka earned a win at Boston on September.

Now in his second season with the Yankees, Tanaka is facing lingering questions about a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow after not having Tommy John surgery previous year. “I gave up four runs and I lost the game”.

But even in a lost season, the Red Sox (76-80) still could create problems for their traditional rivals. Before this month, he had been 4-8 in 13 starts from May 15-Aug. 26. New York 2B Stephen Drew (dizziness) could be done for the season. 3.

David Ortiz, who has been held hitless in five of his last seven games, has homered five times in his last 10 trips to Yankee Stadium. 11 and 19 but allowed four runs and eight hits over 6 1/3 innings against Tampa Bay on Thursday to absorb a loss.

(AP) – Don’t call it a tune-up. As Chad Jennings of the LoHud Yankees blog writes, Yankees manager Joe Girardi on Monday acknowledged that this means Tanaka is “probably” in line to start the AL wild-card game on Tuesday, October 6.

RHP Masahiro Tanaka will return from missing 11 days with a Grade One hamstring strain Wednesday when he opposes the Red Sox.

The 28-year-old left-hander has been durable for the Sox, going six or more innings in each of his last 10 starts.

“I am, yeah”, he said.

“I don’t think we’re there yet”. “We wanted to make that sure he felt good and he could go through all the things he had to go through”. Tanaka is 4-2 with a 4.84 ERA in six starts against the Red Sox.

Nova yielded another two-out, two-run shot to Bradley Jr.in the seventh, after the Boston left fielder already had made an impact with his glove.

With Teixeira gone, one Yankees insider said the fans only come to watch Rodriguez, who drove in the game’s first run with a first-inning sacrifice fly against Eduardo Rodriguez but then struck out with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning.

Coming off a three-game sweep of Baltimore, all shutout wins, the Red Sox kept the Yanks’ all-time franchise win total at 9,999 as Rodriguez improved to 3-1 against the Bombers this year with a 2.22 ERA. It can be hard for players to get into a good rhythm when they don’t get regular playing time, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for him.