We’re still in the honeymoon phase with Masahiro Tanaka, each new wrinkle educating us. The Japanese right-hander’s rookie voyage with the Yankees isn’t even close to stale.
On Sunday night, in start No. 5, the lesson proved more a subtle reinforcement of something we already assumed. Yet it entertained us all the same:
He can thrive even when he doesn’t have his trademark command.
“I just said to myself, this is one of those days basically when they get runners on base,” Tanaka said through his interpreter, following the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over the Angels at Yankee Stadium. “But I try to keep myself intact and not get out of control.”
Tanaka’s four walks in 6 ¹/₃ innings doubled his previous total over 29 ¹/₃ innings, and he also hit his first batter of the season, Ian Stewart, in the fourth. Nevertheless, he struck out 11, and he held the Angels hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. When he left the game in the top of the seventh, the Yankees trailed, 2-1, putting Tanaka in position to suffer his first Major League Baseball loss. But Mark Teixeira’s solo homer off Angels starter Garrett Richards tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, and the Yankees scored the winning run in the eighth by virtue of a hitless rally featuring walks to Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran, a passed ball by Angels catcher Chris Iannetta and a wild pitch by reliever Nick Maronde.
At 15-10, the Yankees can rest Monday having won their last two series and, beyond that, posting a 4-0-1 record in their last five series. They have headaches like any club — Ivan Nova will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery this week, while Michael Pineda will spend the week finishing out his 10-game suspension for stupidity — but they own a 2 ½-game lead over Baltimore (12-12) in the ultra-competitive American League East.
And Tanaka, their $175 million man, provided further evidence that he can be a frontline contributor throughout the season.
“I think you learn a lot about a pitcher when they’re struggling, and how they find a way to get through it,” Joe Girardi said. “He did a good job.”
When you consider the Angels rank second in the American League with 130 runs, you could argue Tanaka faced the tougher assignment on this night. The Yankees now rank eighth in the AL with 107 runs scored, which doesn’t represent a tremendous leap from last year’s 10th place [with 650].
The Angels clearly read their scouting reports on Tanaka, as they tried to combat falling into dangerous, two-strike counts by swinging early against the Yankees’ starter. Of the five hits Los Angeles of Anaheim recorded off Tanaka, three came on his first pitch, including David Freese’s tiebreaking home run to start the sixth. None came with two strikes.
“I gave up some loud balls or doubles to the leadoff batter,” Tanaka said. “ … My pitch numbers went up. I wasn’t trying to give up any runs. In order to do so, sometimes you have to let those pitch numbers go up. That’s what happened [Sunday].”
That led to the shortest outing of his Yankee run, the first in which he didn’t complete at least seven innings. Adam Warren relieved Tanaka and wound up picking up the win, and David Robertson tallied his fourth save. Like last year, in which a stellar record (30-16) in one-run games allowed the Yankees to finish over .500, they are playing well when it matters most. The Yankees own a 3-1 record in one-run games.
The difference between the 2013 Yankees’ offense and the 2014 Yankees’ offense is that last year’s club employed many players from whom the Yankees had no logical reason to expect a surge in productivity.
And on another front, the 2013 Yankees carried no starting pitcher with Tanaka’s tremendous upside. With his ability to impress us even on his least impressive night to date.