A testy Joe Girardi defended his decision to not skip Vidal Nuno on Friday against the Red Sox in favor of Masahiro Tanaka, keeping a longer view in mind rather than just one game.
“Who should I start? I’m going to say this for the last time today because I have answered this question 10 times,” Girardi said before Nuno silenced his many critics for a night in 6-0 victory over the Red Sox in The Bronx. “I’m not irritated but I don’t understand. Tanaka is a guy, the most he has thrown is 226 innings and he is on pace to throw 226 innings and is a guy who is used to pitching every seven days.”
Even after dropping his first decision at home in his last outing, when the Yankees were shut out against Baltimore, Tanaka’s transition from Japan to the majors has gone better than even the Yankees could have expected.
Girardi would like to keep it that way, which is why the manager didn’t mind giving Tanaka an extra day off so he can take the mound Saturday.
An added benefit is it also gives more rest for some of the other inexperienced starters in the rotation like Chase Whitley and David Phelps, as well as veteran Hiroki Kuroda.
“I have been asked over the past eight months a hundred times, ‘Do you think Kuroda got tired [last year]?’” Girardi said of the 39-year-old, who had a disastrous last two months in 2013. “I have a guy in Chase Whitley who has made 20 starts in his career and the most he has thrown in a year was 95 innings. David Phelps is a guy who hasn’t been a starter every year. It’s about five guys, it’s not about Tanaka.”
Fair enough, but Tanaka has emerged as the ace of the staff, thanks to his impressive performance and the fact that CC Sabathia has been out with a knee injury and relatively ineffective even before he got hurt.
But Girardi said Tanaka couldn’t make every start of the season on normal rest.
“If I move Tanaka up, he makes six starts in 30 days every five days,” Girardi said. “What starter does that? No starters do that because it’s physically too tough. When you have a chance to give a guy an extra day, you do.”
So Tanaka will get his second start against the Red Sox after surrendering a just a pair of solo homers to David Ortiz and Mike Napoli over 7 ¹/₃ innings in the April 22 win at Fenway.