No snoozing: Yanks shine following allnighter

CINCINNATI - The New York Yankees know how to pull an all-nighter and come up aces.

Brett Gardner and Matt Holliday homered and Masahiro Tanaka won his fifth consecutive start as the Yankees shook off a long game and a short night's sleep, beating the Cincinnati Reds 10-4 on Monday night.

New York, winner of six in a row, has the best record in the majors at 21-9 and is 12 games over .500 for the first time since 2015.

Better yet, the Yankees were awake to enjoy all of it.

"Guys were really fatigued," manager Joe Girardi said. "That shows you something about these guys."

Their biggest challenge was overcoming the strain from an 18-inning, 5-4 win at Wrigley Field in Chicago that ended just 18 hours earlier.

The Yankees didn't land in the Cincinnati area until 5:08 am, and the sun was up when some of them finally fell asleep.

Players sipped caffeinated drinks and yawned in the clubhouse before the game.

The best-rested Yankee was Tanaka (5-1), who arrived in Cincinnati on Sunday night and watched the marathon game on television in his hotel room.

Well, most of it.

"I watched all the way until the 18th inning," Tanaka said through a translator. "After I saw my team score that run in the bottom of the 18th, I fell asleep."

Tanaka gave the Yankees what they needed after their all-nighter, going seven innings on 112 pitches to rest the bullpen. He allowed four runs - Joey Votto drove in three with a single and a homer - while ending the Reds' five-game winning streak.

"That's a big boost for them," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "They play 18 innings, and then their starter goes seven. That puts them in a lot better shape for tomorrow."

Gary Sanchez got the Yankees going with his bases-loaded single off Rookie Davis in the first. Didi Gregorius also drove in a pair off Davis, who went to the Reds in the trade for closer Aroldis Chapman after the 2015 season.

Gardner and Holliday connected in the eighth inning as the Yankees pulled away.

New York committed a pair of errors in the infield and had a runner thrown out at second base while tagging on a flyout.

Girardi gave Aaron Judge and Starlin Castro a day out of the starting lineup, and he'll give a couple more players some rest on Tuesday to help them fully recover from the six-hour game in Chicago.

Judge was looking forward to facing Davis - the two became friends in the Yankees' minor league system and text every few days. His day off scuttled the matchup.

"Yeah, it would have been fun to face him, but maybe I lucked out not facing him," Judge said before the game.

The Yankees are 8-2 against the NL this season. The Reds are 1-3 against the AL. The Yankees lead their all-time interleague series with the Reds 9-7.

In the seventh inning, reliever Drew Storen plunked Aaron Hicks, Sanchez and Chase Headley. All three stayed in the game. Storen became the first Reds pitcher to hit three in an inning since Raul Sanchez plunked three Phillies in 1960.

"It's frustrating," Girardi said. "We've been already beat up. We know he's not trying to hit them."

Associated Press