Masahiro Tanaka struggles as the New York Yankees are hammered by the Washington Nationals

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.  The game took place at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida and the final score was 13-0.  Masahiro Tanaka started and didn't pitch well.  Brett Gardner led the Yankees offense with a couple of hits. 

Tanaka pitched four innings giving up nine hits and seven runs with a walk and three strikeouts.  Nick Goody pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout, Luis Cessa pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Johnny Barbato pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out two.  Anthony Swarzak pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up three hits and six runs with none of them being earned.  He also walked a batter and Nick Rumbelow pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit. 

Gardner had two hits, Dustin Ackley had a hit and Austin Romine had a hit.  Rob Refsnyder had a hit, Pete Kozma had a hit and Chris Denorfia had a hit.  Carlos Corporan had a hit, Ronald Torreyes had a hit and Donovan Solano had a hit.  Romine hit a double and the Yankees were 1-10 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.  Tyler Wade and Solano each committed an error and Cesar Puello committed two errors.  Gardner had an outfield assist. 

In the first Anthony Rendon hit an RBI double to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead.  In the third Stephen Drew hit a solo homerun to extend the lead to 2-0, Ryan Zimmerman hit an RBI groundout to make it 3-0 and Jayson Werth hit an RBI single making it 4-0.  Chris Heisey hit an RBI double to extend the lead to 5-0, Wilson Ramos hit a two run homerun and it was 7-0 all in the third inning.  In the eighth Jhonatan Solano reached on an error and a run scored to make it 8-0 Nationals.  Osvaldo Abreu hit an RBI single and Scott Sizemore hit a three run single to make it 12-0 Nationals.  Matt den Dekker hit an RBI single still in the eighth and it was 13-0 which would be the final score. 

The Yankees spring record fell to 9-10 with a couple of tie games.  The Nationals record improved to 14-4.  The Yankees will play the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa on Thursday night.