TAMPA – Strange got stranger Tuesday morning for Masahiro Tanaka.
“Morning” is the key word in that previous sentence. Here is Tanaka doing well so far assimilating to a new country, language, food, teammates, size of the baseball, etc., so it was about that time to increase the degree of difficulty by having the righty participate in his first simulated game – at 8:40 a.m.
“It is a little bit harder to get it going at 8 a.m.,” said his catcher, John Ryan Murphy. “We talked about it not being easy. But he was taking it as seriously as he could.”
Yes, let’s score some more points for Tanaka losing nothing in translation. In a fake game with no baserunners, his pitching coach calling balls and strikes from behind a screen at the back of the mound, just two hitters batting one after another after another after another, Tanaka was a businessman, handling the odd with seriousness.
He felt his splitter was sloppy in his previous game, so he was determined to work on it – and the view from behind the plate was of a merciless missile that at about 50 feet crashes downward. Tanaka threw his curve more, and the pitch – probably his fourth best – had both significant break and depth, which is particularly encouraging because the American ball is slicker than the Japanese version, so spinning it with control is more problematic.
In all, Murphy said, Tanaka unleashed six different pitches – splitter, curve, fastball, cutter, changeup and slider – and “he could have thrown any of them at any time in the count in any situation,” such was the command he had.
Again, his pitching coach was the ump, the opposing hitters were Jake Cave and Cito Culver – neither of whom has advanced beyond A-ball – and the sun was over the right-field fence making it particularly difficult for the righty-swinging Culver to see, so let’s not overstate that Tanaka threw 49 of his 63 pitches for strikes, including 16 in a row at one juncture. In four simulated innings, he struck out nine of the 18 batters.
Since there are no fielders, it is all judgment, but he seemed to give up three hits. One was a homer to right by Cave on a fastball in.
“I guessed right on one of the eight pitches he throws,” Cave said. “I knew I couldn’t hit his changeup or split or whatever that is.”
Or as Murphy said, “to hit a ball that hard off Tanaka, you better guess location and pitch.”
But this wasn’t really about fake numbers in a pretend setting. This was about the very real way Tanaka continues to impress by taking on new challenges without fuss, but with professionalism and good spirits. Simulated games are rare in Japan, and Tanaka had never participated in one. But he was due to pitch on the same day as CC Sabathia and both needed to pitch four or five innings. So Sabathia got the actual exhibition game in Viera.
The next choices at this time of year are split-squads in which a team plays two actual exhibition games in different places on the same day. A “B” game, in which two opposing teams play, but usually with many backups, in the morning and with no paid attendance. An intra-squad game in which the team splits up and plays against itself. Or a simulated game. Each of these brings a sliding scale downward in structure and intensity, so it is up to the participants to infuse the meaning, provide the energy.
“Obviously, it’s part of practicing,” Tanaka said. “You’re throwing against your own people. Some of the adjustments that I was able to make today, I just want to see if I can do that in a real game.”
Perhaps it is easier for Tanaka to find motivation than most, since a whole country is watching. There were about 40 Japanese reporters tracking every pitch from behind home plate, the crickets-in-heat sound coming from the clicking cameras literally every time he raised his arm for a pitch. Trust me, Jake Cave is going to be close to a household name in Tokyo today.
Still, if you are not used to this atmosphere at this hour of day, it is bizarre. Rothschild, several other coaches and Tanaka’s interpreter stay behind the screen. There are innings that contain four or five outs so Tanaka could hit a predetermined pitch count, the innings only ending with Rothschild saying, “That’s it.” First, David Robertson and then Matt Thornton pitched the bottom of innings, so Tanaka got to practice a break between frames, as well.
Robertson came back out to watch the fourth inning, observed for a few minutes and then offered, “He’s filthy. Every pitch comes out of the same arm slot and moves every which way. Not to mention he runs it up there at 93 [mph].”
That provides commentary on another good day at the new office for Tanaka, who continues to meet strange head on and with aplomb by being a professional businessman.