Athletics left-hander Scott Kazmir held the Rangers to just one hit — a single from Elvis Andrus in the third inning — over eight scoreless innings as part of a 7-0 victory this afternoon. However, he got some help along the way from center fielder Billy Burns, who made a pair of amazing catches.
Watch both of them below:
In addition to his heroics in the field, Burns had a nice day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly, a walk, a run scored, and a stolen base.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka went the distance, holding the Rays scoreless on two hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts across nine innings on Monday night in the Bronx. It’s the fourth shutout of his career, accounting for four of the Yankees’ last six shutouts. The other two were thrown my Luis Severino and Brandon McCarthy.
DJ LeMahieu provided the bulk of the offense, swatting a two-run home run off of Yonny Chirinos in the third inning. Cameron Maybin tacked on a solo homer off of Chirinos in the fifth as the Yankees went on to win 3-0.
After Monday’s performance, Tanaka owns a 3.23 ERA with 84 strikeouts and 20 walks across 92 innings on the season.
With the win, the Yankees increase their lead over the Rays for first place in the AL East to 1.5 games.
