Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte Lead Pirates To 11th Straight; Masahiro Tanaka Goes Distance For Yankees, Shuts Out Rays

Players of the Day for Tuesday, July 24, 2018

American League

Tanaka: CG, 3H, OER, 9K

The Yankees haven't exactly been a model of consistency of late, going 6-6 in their last 12 games, but they got a needed boost from Masahiro Tanaka, who blanked the Rays in Tampa for a 4-0 New York victory.

Making his first start since July 15, Tanaka twirled a three-hit, nine-strikeout gem against the Yankees' AL East nemesis. The 29-year-old right-hander issued just one walk and threw 74 of 105 pitches for strikes, improving to 8-2 on the year.

Tanaka had been on the DL for nearly a month in June and early July. The win was his first decision since a June 2nd win at Baltimore.

The Yankees picked up a game on the Red Sox, 7-6 losers at Baltimore.

The Rays and Yankees wrap up their three-game series Wednesday at 12:10 pm EDT at Tropicana Field in Tampa.

National League

Marte: 2-for-5, HR, 3 RBI

With their 9-2 win at Cleveland, the Pittsburgh Pirates have reeled off 11 straight and are suddenly back in the thick of the Central division and wild card races in the National League.

Corey Dickerson and Starling Marte accounted for the bulk of the scoring as the Pirates struck early and often against Cleveland starter, Shane Bieber, who was rocked for seven runs and didn't make it out of the second inning.

Dickerson led off the game with a double and scored on Marte's 16th home run. In the second, Dickerson tripled tripled in two more runs and scored as Marte beat out an infield single. Marte scored when Gregory Polanco launched his 18th homer out to right field, putting the Pirates up, 7-1 and sending Bieber to the showers.

Dickerson: 2B, 3B, 2RBI

Dickerson, who has been especially on fire lately, is batting an even .400 in July (28-for-70) with 17 runs, six homers and 12 RBI. His surge to a .318 batting average has him tied with Freddie Freeman, .001 behind league-leader, Nick Markakis (.319).

Marte is batting .292 with 16 homers and 54 RBI. In his last 15 games, the center fielder is 24-for-63 (.381) with seven hoe runs and 17 RBI.

Pittsburgh is three games behind Arizona and Atlanta for the second spot in the wide-open NL will card race. They trail the Cubs by six games in the Central division.

On Wednesday, Pittsburgh will be looking for its third consecutive series sweep when they settle up with the Indians, at 1:10 pm EDT. The Pirates took five straight over Milwaukee leading into the all star break and then won three in a row in Cincinnati. Their winning streak began with a win over the Nationals.