There are two Yankees teams right now: the good one when Masahiro Tanaka starts and the poor one when he does not.
The Yankees are 6-1 in Tanaka’s outings, 13-18 otherwise. And the recent trend line essentially has turned the Yankees’ mantra into: Masahiro Tanaka and pray for rain. In their past 19 games, the Yankees are 4-0 when Tanaka starts and 4-11 when he does not, after their 12-7 humiliation against the Mets on Tuesday night.
Going into his Subway debut Wednesday at Citi Field, Tanaka insists “no pressure, nothing changes what I need to do.” Fine. Nice sentiment. But his starts have turned into pretty much must-win affairs for the Yankees, considering the general ruin of their roster and the specific decay of their pitching.
The Mets had hit .224 and scored 14 runs in six games leading into this New York-New York showdown.They have 21 runs in two games, with their hitters looking more comfortable in The Bronx than the Yankees have all year — and certainly more comfortable than the Mets have looked in Queens.
Maybe it is the short porch — Curtis Granderson certainly has looked at home again. But Yankees pitching definitely is aiding and abetting the enemy.
Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia are on the disabled list. That has meant the Yankees had to reach into their bullpen to make David Phelps and Vidal Nuno starters. That has led to shorter starts mixed with a weakened pen, especially with Shawn Kelley having to go on the DL Tuesday, too. Chase Whitley is making his major league debut Thursday — the Yankees’ eighth different starter before reaching even Memorial Day.
So you can see why the Wednesday outing by Tanaka — the Yankees having lost four straight — carries such weight. Yankees officials do not want to use the word “ace,” but it is just blatant now.
Tanaka is 5-0 with a 2.57 ERA. The other Yankees starters are 10-12 with a 5.26 ERA. Tanaka has completed at least seven innings five times, the rest of the rotation four combined. Tanaka has 21 of the 39 outs the Yankees’ rotation has recorded after the sixth inning. In other words, he saves the bullpen or no one does.
“He is used to being that guy from [his responsibility in] Japan,” pitching coach Larry Rothschild said. “Still, you can only pitch as good as you can pitch.”
To date, Tanaka is what has stood between the Yankees and abject disaster.
QUIZ: Masahiro Tanaka will become the fifth person born in Japan to start a Subway Series game as a pitcher. Name the other four (answer below).
Two Bombers could be in rookie running
Masahiro Tanaka is in the midst of forcing opposing teams to make the Mariano Rivera decision: Should they send up righty hitters to thwart the best pitch of a righty pitcher?
Rivera’s signature cutter was renowned for breaking the bats and hearts of lefty hitters (career .525 OPS against), but being a bit easier for righties to cope with because it broke away from them. Now, Tanaka’s splitter is proving as devious to lefties.
They are hitting .207 with a .535 OPS (roughly the same OPS Danny Ainge had to convince him to give up the majors for the NBA). More revealing is that Tanaka has walked one lefty and struck out 20. Conversely, righties are hitting .245 with a .480 slugging percentage and a .768 OPS (or a point higher than borderline Hall of Famer Alan Trammell).
The Brewers are limited with lefty hitters, yet did not start Lyle Overbay last Friday against Tanaka. Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild said, “I think we are going to start seeing some different stuff against him.”
Mets manager Terry Collins said he intends to start his three regular lefties — Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy — against Tanaka. But Collins says he is aware of how devastating Tanaka’s arsenal could be. Because though Tanaka never has faced the Mets, Collins managed the Orix Buffaloes in 2007-08, and Tanaka — in his first two seasons — started five times against Collins’ Pacific League squad.
“The fastball was even better then,” Collins said. “The breaking ball was great. He was 18 and already you could see that he could pitch here.”
Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven seasons in Japan and Yangervis Solarte played eight years in the minors. They have taken long, interesting roads to the Yankees and now give the organization a chance to do something it has never done before — have two players receive Rookie of the Year votes in the same season.
It is a long way from here until ballots are cast after the regular season — plenty of time for injuries, new call-ups, players to rise and players to fall.
But six weeks into the season, Tanaka and White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu — the two huge international signs of the offseason — are the front-runners for AL Rookie of the Year.
At this moment, Solarte is in the conversation with Royals fireballer Yordano Ventura for third place (voters are allowed to pick just a top three). At .336, Solarte is leading the AL in hitting.
My gut tells me Boston’s Xander Bogaerts is too talented not to push into this conversation, and others such as Red Sox teammate Jackie Bradley Jr., Minnesota’s Josmil Pinto, Houston’s George Springer, Seattle’s Roenis Elias and Detroit’s Nick Castellanos could become factors, too.
The Yankees actually are enjoying the work of a strong rookie crop with Dellin Betances and John Ryan Murphy emerging as helpful players — or more. It is particularly noticeable because of the way the Yankees’ older players are crumbling physically and statistically.
It is rare for the Yankees to get high-end work from rookies. Since Derek Jeter won the award in 1996, the Yankees have had Orlando Hernandez finish fourth in 1998, Alfonso Soriano third in 2001, Hideki Matsui second in 2003, Robinson Cano second in 2005, Joba Chamberlain eighth in 2008 and Ivan Nova fourth in 2011.
In their history, the Yankees have had eight Rookies of the Year: Jeter, Dave Righetti (1981), Thurman Munson (1970), Stan Bahnsen (1968), Tom Tresh (1962), Tony Kubek (1957) and Bob Grim (1954). The award originated in 1949 and through 1969 voters were allowed to pick just one player.
The Yankees never have had two get votes in any year. And perhaps the most interesting result was 2001 when the top three in order were Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle), CC Sabathia (Cleveland) and Soriano — all three, 13 years later, are 2014 Yankees.
QUIZ ANSWER: Masato Yoshii and Hisanori Takahashi each started for the Mets twice against the Yankees. Hiroki Kuroda has started three times for the Yankees against the Mets and Hideki Irabu twice.