Michael Pineda tries to continue his interleague mastery on Monday when the New York Yankees open a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies at Yankee Stadium.
Pineda flirted with a no-hitter on Wednesday against Miami and didn't allow a hit until Christian Yelich's home run to start the seventh. He recorded two outs after that and left having allowed just one hit and one run with nine strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi admitted that he would have pulled Pineda regardless of the no-hitter, as his pitch count started to creep toward 100.
"He's never been a guy that's thrown 200 innings, he didn't throw a ton of innings last season," Girardi said. "Research shows that major increases hurt players and that's something I have to manage."
Still, Pineda improved to 5-1 with a 1.35 ERA in seven interleague matchups, One of those wins came against the Phillies back in 2011 when he was a rookie with Seattle.
Pineda, who is 8-3 with a 3.54 ERA on the year, could bolster those numbers on Monday against a Phillies team that is an MLB-worst 7-28 away from home this season and is currently in the midst of a 12-game road losing streak.
Philadelphia's last 13-game road slide was from June 10-July 10, 1997.
Philadelphia managed to salvage the finale of its three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, as Adam Morgan pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball and the Phillies picked up a 9-2 win.
Morgan (1-0) gave up six hits and struck out six in his major league debut, earning the first win for a Phillies starter since May 23, when Cole Hamels won in Washington. Starters had gone 0-16 during a 4-21 stretch since then.
"Just very very happy for the opportunity, very grateful," said Morgan. "I wasn't trying to do too much. I wasn't trying to overthink. The main thing I was trying to focus on was keeping the ball down."
Now, they'll turn to Kevin Correia, who is winless in two starts since joining the Phils, but has pitched to a 1.69 ERA. After throwing 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his season debut, Correia gave up six runs (2 earned) in five innings in a loss to Baltimore on Wednesday.
New York was denied a sweep in its series with the Detroit Tigers on Sunday,, as Masahiro Tanaka got roughed up in a 12-4 loss. Stephen Drew swatted a pair of solo homers in the loss, which snapped New York's four-game win streak.
Tanaka (4-3) served up three home runs, seven runs -- five earned -- over five innings in his worst start of the season.
"He didn't have it today, and they made him pay," Girardi said of Tanaka.
This is the Phillies first visit to the Bronx since taking two of three back in 2010.
[SportsNetwork.com]
