Nationals 5 - 4 Yankees
Final/11
  for this game

Yanks eye eighth straight win and sweep of Nats

Jun 10, 2015 - 11:29 AM (SportsNetwork.com) - Nathan Eovaldi tries to pitch the New York Yankees to an eighth straight win on Wednesday when they close out a brief two-game set with the Washington Nationals at Yankee Stadium.

New York continued to impress on Tuesday, as Brian McCann's two-run double highlighted a big seventh inning that sent the Yankees to a 6-1 win.

The Yankees scored four times in the seventh to break a 1-1 duel between Max Scherzer and Masahiro Tanaka, who turned in a second straight outstanding start since returning from a forearm strain.

Tanaka (4-1) yielded just one run -- a Bryce Harper solo homer -- and five hits over seven very efficient innings. The New York ace struck out six without a walk and was backed by Stephen Drew's two solo homers and three-hit nights from McCann and Ramon Flores.

"Just really consistent again," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "I thought they were aggressive on (Tanaka), and he made really good pitches early in the count."

Scherzer (6-5) was charged with four runs in 6 2/3 frames while being victimized by a throwing error from Ian Desmond that opened the floodgates for New York's seventh-inning outburst.

He also didn't get much help from a Washington offense that mustered only six hits in the club's ninth loss in 11 games.

"Tanaka threw a great game. He shut us down pretty well," said Harper, who finished 2-for-4. "He knows how to pitch, he pitches to his strengths and it doesn't matter who's up there."

Eovaldi struggled with his command on Friday against the Los Angeles Angels, but picked up the win, as he allowed just one run and four hits with four walks in 5 1/3 innings to improve to 5-1, while lowering his ERA to 4.16.

Eovaldi is 2-4 in eight starts versus the Nationals with a 5.32 ERA.

Washington, meanwhile, will counter with lefty Gio Gonzalez, who is 4-3 with a 4.57 ERA. Gonzalez pitched well on Thursday, but absorbed the loss to the Chicago Cubs, as he surrendered two runs and four hits in six innings. He also walked four and struck out six.

"I didn't throw strikes (in the first inning). The second inning I threw strikes, that was the difference," Gonzalez said. "I walked two batters in an inning. It can haunt you. After that, you turn that page, you settle down, pound the strike zone."

Gonzalez was roughed up by the Yanks back on May 19 to the tune of six runs in five innings. That's been the trend when facing the Yankees, as he is a miserable 1-5 lifetime versus them with a 7.30 ERA in seven starts.

Washington had swept the Yankees in a two-game set in D.C. in May.






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