Steve Serby

Steve Serby

Tanaka’s strong outing boosts tired lineup behind him

The line drives began booming unexpectedly off Tampa Bay bats early and often, and it was almost as if that was Hideki Irabu on the mound and not Masahiro Tanaka, resident Yankees ace, designated savior of a tattered bullpen and flailing team.

He is not Hideki Irabu. Same country. Different pitcher.

Masahiro Tanaka does what aces do. Aces don’t always throw complete-game shutouts. Aces don’t always have their best stuff. Aces figure it all out anyway on days when their fastball command is not there, when their splitter acts like a changeup. Aces are very much like Floyd Mayweather, or Bernard Hopkins, or Muhammad Ali, during a fight.

“I just think he’s really good at making adjustments,” manager Joe Girardi said.

Aces stand in there and find a way to give their team a chance to win. On those infrequent occasions when the ace’s skill isn’t there, he still can fall back on his indomitable will.

“He can attack you in many different ways, he’s not just a one-pitch pitcher, he can dissect both sides of the plate to both righties and lefties,” catcher Brian McCann said, “so when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he can maneuver through lineups.”

Aces are resilient. Aces are mentally tough. Aces never view their standing as burden, but opportunity. Aces want to be on the mound when their team needs them to stop the bleeding.

Aces do not get rattled by a first-inning home run, or a smash off their ankle or near their head. Aces can be Fire, or they can be Ice. This one is Ice.

Tanaka is cheered off the field after the seventh. He’d scattered three runs over those innings, which was enough for his fourth win.Paul J. Bereswill
“I think that him getting hit in the ankle affected him a little bit more than he led on for us to believe,” McCann said.

Aces give their team a measure of comfort and confidence, that the game isn’t lost just because there is a 3-0 deficit in the fourth. Because there is always the chance a 3-0 deficit can turn into a 3-2 deficit on a Mark Teixeira home run then a 4-3 lead on a Kelly Johnson home run in the sixth inning.

In other words, when the ace is on, he is capable of making virtually everyone around him better.

“I love playing behind him because he can get outs in so many different ways,” Teixeira said.

There is always the chance the ace will get stronger as the game goes on and pitchers on the other side will falter.

“He finds a way to make adjustments, and hang around, in a sense,” Girardi said.

Tanaka had thrown 97 pitches through six innings and now he needed to make his first lead of the afternoon stand up. With two outs, he fell behind 3-0 on Desmond Jennings. Then struck him out. Tanaka had thrown 112 pitches through seven innings. The only question he couldn’t answer was why he sometimes starts slow before finishing strong.

“I wish that I could be better at the beginning of the games,” Tanaka said through an interpreter, “but I really don’t know.”

An ace never wants to come out of the game. But that was then, when a Nolan Ryan pitched, and this is now.
“Just glad that I was able to sort of battle my way through the game and not let go of the game, just keep the game where it was,” Tanaka said.

Girardi was going to let him pitch to Matt Joyce, and only Matt Joyce, in the top of the eighth if the score had stayed 4-3, but soon thanked him for his time, for his grit, for his professionalism, because by the time Dellin Betances came out of the depleted bullpen on in the eighth, Teixeira had ripped an RBI single, Alfonso Soriano had himself a sacrifice fly, and it was a 6-3 ballgame, and eventually a 9-3 Yankees victory.

“I think you know what you’re going to get from him,” Girardi said. “You’re going to get a guy that really is going to compete, is going to give you distance, and is going to keep you in a game, giving every opportunity to win it.”

That makes him Maceahiro Tanaka.