Since Michael Brantley singled in the third inning, Masahiro Tanaka has allowed a fielder’s choice to Alex Bregman and absolutely nothing else, with eight straight batters being dispatched with seemingly minimal effort. That includes a top of the fifth in which he dispatched the top of the Astros’ batting order with the only difficult out being Michael Brantley’s liner to right that was snagged by a diving Aaron Judge.
Zack Greinke was not nearly as sharp. He allowed a one-out single to right from D.J. LeMahieu before falling behind 3-0 against Aaron Judge in an at-bat that eventually went eight pitches and resulted in a walk.