Tanaka made his third consecutive opening day start for the Yankees, and had been 6-0 with a 2.82 ERA in eight career starts against Tampa Bay.
In the second inning, Pineda gave up three straight two-out hits - including a two-run single by Derek Norris and an RBI single by Dickerson - giving the Rays a 4-1 lead. The Rays' bullpen was even sharper, allowing just one run in 8 1/3 innings over the three games, striking out six batters and walking one.
The two were briefly Yankees teammates in 1995, Mattingly's last season in the majors and Jeter's first, and Mattingly went on to coach NY during Jeter's stay.
Opening day was on Sunday for the Yankees, but Masahiro Tanaka must have missed the memo.
As Pineda prepares for his first start of the season in Tampa tomorrow night, let's look back at one of his pitching lines last season that sums up his career in pinstripes.
For Alex Cobb, it was only 957 days.
The Rays got a leadoff home run from Corey Dickerson in the first.
The Yankees will need their bullpen to stay sharp with 161 games left in MLB's annual marathon. Noah Syndergaard gave up only five hits in six shutout innings, while Lucas Duda drove in a game-high three RBIs.
He should have confidence against the Yankees: His career ERA of 2.91 in 12 starts against NY is third-best among all active pitchers, even though the Yankees tagged him for 10 runs in 7 1/3 innings last season.
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The Yankees' big hits came from the bottom of the lineup - No. 9 hitter Ronald Torreyes hit a two-run homer in the third, and No. 7 hitter Chase Headley added a solo home run in the sixth and an RBI single in the eighth.
Despite the 3.07 ERA in 2016 and his numerous good starts against Tampa Bay in the past, maybe Tanaka simply isn't a good Opening Day starter.
Yankees: In Wednesday night's series finale, RHP Michael Pineda will look to stop a career-long, 10-start winless streak, dating to a victory over Cleveland last August 5.
Michael Pineda had a shaky season previous year, so hopefully, with his pine tar incident behind him, he can have a full season and begin to perform at the level the Yankees were looking for when they signed him from Seattle.
Yankees and the Rays face each other in rubber game.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said Headley's success against the shift won't necessarily force the Rays to re-think their defensive strategy moving forward.
"I thought Odo threw the ball really well". The Rays stay home to open a four-game series against Toronto on Thursday night.
Sabathia wears a knee brace on the mound and his in-season maintenance program has included occasionally fluid draining, but overall "we were pretty pleased at the end of camp where we felt like he was at (physically)", Girardi said.
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