The New York Yankees and Houston Texans are thriving at this point in the season. Both teams are sitting well above .500 while chasing the tops of their division. The Yankees got the best of the Astros in the first matchup, ending their four-game home win streak and now they face off again as Masahiro Tanaka is looking to rbeound after the worst start of his career.
"I feel that I'm at a pretty good place. I was able to work on that in the bullpen," Tanaka said, via ESPN.com "The one thing I need to do is get that out in the game, take what I've been working on and do that in the games. The one thing that'll make me feel relieved is to go out there and pitch well, and the team winning."
Tanaka is confident that he can bounce back after he allowed seven runs, 10 hits and three home runs in just five innings of play against the Detroit Pistons. It matched a career-high for Tanaka who is 4-3 with a 3.17 ERA on the season. Both Tanaka and Joe Girardi denied there was an injury issue and that the pitcher just had a bad outing. In Tanaka's five previous starts, he did not allow more than two runs while positing a 1.71 ERA in that stretch. Tanaka will have the support of Chris Young who was the hero on Friday. He hit the go-ahead three-run homer while posting a .471 batting average in his last nine games. He is hitting .410 in 25 games in Houston, his best average of any stadium.
Brett Oberholtzer will take the mound for Houston as he is 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA. He has not allowed more than three runs in his last five starts. He had to miss three weeks for a blister, but has bounced back just fine. In his last start he threw 101 pitches in just five innings of play, but only allowed a two-run homer and three other hits while facing the Los Angels Angels. He is 0-2 with a 4.96 ERA on the season against the New York Yankees.
