After going an incredible 24-9-1 in spring training play, the New York Yankees were ready for the 2017 season with their core of young studs as well as new veterans including Matt Holliday and Chris Carter. They kicked off the new year down in St. Petersburg to take on Evan Longoria and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Masahiro Tanaka and Chris Archer would get the ball for their respective clubs. Chris Archer completely dominated for Tampa Bay, allowing just two earned runs over seven innings pitched while Tanaka completely struggled. He gave up a career-high seven runs on Opening Day in just 2.2 innings pitched, the most for any Yankee since Roger Clemens gave up eight in 2002.
Following his rough outing, Tanaka told reporters, “The only thing to do is to come back strong. Looking back, just because it was the first game of the season, maybe I was a bit hyped up.”
Game two of this three game set is Wednesday evening at Tropicana Field. Your starters will be C.C. Sabathia for the Yankees and Jake Odorizzi for the Rays.
