You could feel the energy elevate at Citi Field Wednesday night, as the Subway Series shifted boroughs and gave us a pitching matchup we might very well remember down the road.
The Yankees and Masahiro Tanaka prevailed, 4-0, climbing to 20-19 and knocking the Mets and Rafael Montero to 19-20, as the Yankees halted the Mets’ six-game Subway Series winning streak. The two young starting pitchers, the latter making his major-league debut and the former merely his Subway Series debut, displayed where they stand in their respective universes.
To the Yankees, Tanaka represents both salvation and diversion. To the Mets, Montero serves as a nice coming attraction.
The 25-year-old Tanaka stopped a four-game Yankees losing streak — the four games since he last pitched, in other words — by pitching his first career complete game and shutout. In raising his record to 6-0 in eight starts, he allowed just four hits to the previously red-hot Mets offense while walking none and striking out eight. He now has a remarkable 66 strikeouts and seven walks in 58 innings, leading the Yankees in the first and third categories as well as strikeouts-to-walks ratio.
Oh, and he also picked up his first major-league hit, a ground-ball single up the middle in the ninth.
“Yes, I knew that we were in a little funk, losing four in a row,” Tanaka, who threw 114 pitches, said through his interpreter. “I also knew we hadn’t won a Subway Series in a while. So yes, I did want to go out there and try to get a win for us.”
“Stopping a losing streak. Knowing that we needed a win, bad. We needed distance, bad,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, in listing Tanaka’s accomplishments Wednesday.
“You look up, he’s in the fifth inning, he’s thrown only 57 pitches. He did what he had to do for our club. He really stepped up.”
The 23-year-old Montero, meanwhile, largely validated the Mets’ decision to baptize him by fire. He kept his club in the game by allowing three runs and five hits over six innings, walking two and striking out three.
Essentially, Montero gave up a pair of solo homers — Yangervis Solarte in the fourth and Mark Teixeira in the sixth. The Yankees’ first run, in the second inning, came courtesy of a boneheaded decision by Eric Young, Jr. who dove to catch Brian Roberts’ line drive and missed so badly the ball sailed past him, allowing Roberts to tally a two-out triple and score Solarte from second.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Mets manager Terry Collins said of his rookie.
Because Dillon Gee went on the disabled list Wednesday due to a strained right latissimus dorsi, Montero now finds himself as an increasingly important part of the Mets’ starting rotation, with Jacob deGrom set to make his big-league debut in Thursday’s Subway finale against the Yankees’ Chase Whitley (who also will make his major-league debut. Whew!).
Not long ago, we would’ve tabbed both Montero and deGrom as more likely to help the Mets out of the bullpen than in the rotation. Yet needs change quickly, especially this season as an injury epidemic seems to be striking the pitching community throughout the industry.
Noah Syndergaard should join Montero and deGrom on the Mets’ pitching staff in a month or so, providing the Mets with hope they can make a run at .500, if not the 90-win goal that general manager Sandy Alderson established. Having written that, there’s a reasonable chance that this promising trio won’t combine to match the value the ridiculously good Tanaka is providing to the Yankees.
“I think you could argue he’s been as valuable as anyone on our team, with what he’s done so far this year,” Girardi said.
Since Tanaka’s last start May 9, the Yankees lost CC Sabathia to the disabled list (right knee), saw Carlos Beltran go down with a potentially serious right elbow injury and had to reduce the en fuego Mark Teixeira’s playing time as the first baseman battled a left groin issue. They also suffered the indignity of watching the Mets take to Yankee Stadium like a phony takes to Hollywood, as the Mets rang up 21 runs in two games against the Yankees’ thinned-out pitching staff in the Bronx.
Collins lamented the Mets hit a few long flyouts to right field in this game, with David Wright (first inning) and Daniel Murphy (fourth) both sending balls to the warning track.
“We were in the wrong part of town,” the Mets’ manager said, as both probably would have been homers at Yankee Stadium. Yet the Yankees faced the same dimensions and managed to reach the seats twice.
Tanaka, signed for $155 million over seven years plus a $20 million posting fee to the Rakuten Golden Eagles, needed less than two months to become the Yankees’ ace. It really isn’t close. With him, the Yankees are in the mix for the American League East title. Without him, they’d be challenging the Rays for the division basement.
The Mets need Montero to enhance their future. The Yankees need Tanaka to preserve their present. As usually happens in New York, present trumped future on Wednesday night. More important for New York baseball, both left us wanting to see more.