Mets blast 3 HRs to sink Yankees, Tanaka

Despite enjoying another fine campaign with the New York Yankees, his second since emigrating from Japan, Masahiro Tanaka has struggled to keep the ball in the yard when pitching in the Bronx this season.

On Friday night, the 26-year-old couldn't avoid the long ball in Queens, either.

Tanaka, making his second career start at Citi Field to kick off another highly anticipated installment of the Subway Series, surrendered a pair of solo shots over six innings while receiving negligible run support in a 5-1 loss to the New York Mets.

Though his teammates manufactured a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly from Chris Young, Tanaka squandered the early advantage by surrendering a mammoth, one-out blast to Lucas Duda in the bottom of the second. Four innings later, with the game still mired in a 1-1 tie, Tanaka was victimized once again, this time by Daniel Murphy, whose solo shot saddled the Yankees with a 2-1 deficit that only grew once Tanaka was removed.

"Your veterans are supposed to step up on big stages, supposed to come through," Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters. "Tonight our guys got big hits. Tanaka was really pitching great. Talk to him he’d tell you he made two mistakes, both hit out of the ballpark."

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

Chasen Shreve, who took the mound with four earned runs allowed in his last three outings, surrendered a two-run blast to Juan Uribe in the bottom of the seventh before Branden Pinder and James Pazos conspired to allow another run in the eighth, extending the Mets' lead to 5-1.

When the dust finally settled, Tanaka and the Yankees' relief corps had been thoroughly outdueled by Mets rookie Steven Matz, who allowed one run on seven intermittent singles in six innings before yielding to a bullpen that collected five strikeouts over three scoreless innings.

For Tanaka, however, Friday's outing did little to allay concerns over his ability to keep the ball in the park. Over his last six starts, Tanaka has allowed six home runs in 40 1/3 innings (1.34 per nine), and no American League starter has surrendered more round-trippers since the All-Star break.

The Yankees' second loss in their last three contests, meanwhile, bumped them 4 1/2 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays, who cruised to a 6-1 victory in Friday's series opener against the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre. Conversely, the Mets extended their division lead over the Washington Nationals to 8 1/2 games with their victory.

"We need to win games," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "That's the bottom line. We didn't score runs tonight. We had some chances early on and were able to come up with one and that was it. But we need to win games and we need to focus on ourselves and take care of business."