Gardy's Party

Brett Gardner's two-run 8th inning homer off Jacob de Grom snapped a tie and put the Yankees on top in Friday night's Subway Series opener. With rookie star Gleyber Torres on 1st, Gardy hit it just far enough, bouncing it off the top of the right field wall as the Bronx Bombers lived up to their name to take round one of this year's six-game battle.
The longest tenured Yankee -- and only member of the current team to have played in the old Stadium -- Gardner tends to play bigger than his numbers. I have to admit standing in the camera well when he walked to the plate, "This is his kind of moment." And it was.
(Below) Squaring it up, the moment when Brett's bat makes contact. And once ball met wood, there was no doubt that this one was not coming back.
After running around the bases, Gardner was in a mood to celebrate his bomb. After touching home plate, it was a good time for a forearm-to-forearm jump. The Yankees added a Giancarlo Stanton solo shot an inning later on for a 4-1 victory over the Mets.
Now, the cold dose of reality: Yankee fans are holding their collective breath after Masahiro Tanaka left the game after scoring the first run of the game in the top of the 6th. Reading safely on Adrian Gonzalez' error, he ran hard to score from 3rd base on Aaron Judge's sacrifice fly.  (Right: he takes his lead off 3rd base, moments before he runs hard.) But at what price? Tanaka immediately walked down the clubhouse stairs, clearly not feeling right. After the game, we learned the problem was tight hamstrings. Will that cost him one start or a bunch more?

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