Joe doesn’t want to ‘light up’ Tanaka with scan
When a pitcher the caliber of Masahiro Tanaka gives up 14 runs over 4.2 innings in his last two starts while giving up seven home runs, plenty of questions are going to be asked. One posed to Joe Girardi on Wednesday was about whether the Yankees have felt compelled to have Tanaka undergo any scans to make sure the pitcher is fine physically, the partial tear of Tanaka’s UCL coming to the forefront of minds when he’s struggled.
“You don’t just scan people. You just don’t light ‘em up inside,” Girardi said. “We don’t want to turn him into Spiderman or Superman or something like that. Radiation is something you have to deal with. You don’t just scan people to scan ‘em. We have to do that in the airport and none of us like that.”
Tanaka, who will try to get back on track Thursday afternoon in the series finale against the Royals, has a 6.56 ERA through nine starts. He was terrific as recently as April 27, when he tossed a three-hit shutout in Boston. Since then he’s allowed at least four runs in each of his four starts. After his latest rough outing on Saturday in St. Petersburg, pitching coach Larry Rothschild said they “need to go back to square one.”
The 28-year-old righthander, whom the Yanks signed to a seven-year, $155 million deal before the 2014 season, can at the end of this season opt out of his contract, which will have three years and $67 million remaining.
AROLDIS MAY THROW SOON
Girardi said closer Aroldis Chapman, on the disabled list since May 13 with left rotatorcuff inflammation, will see a doctor on Friday and if all goes well he will begin a throwing program on Saturday. Brian Cashman said on May 14 that Chapman would be shut down for two weeks and be out for a minimum of a month.
The Yankees brought Chapman back on a five-year, $86 million deal in the offseason after trading him at last year’s deadline to the Cubs for a package headlined by Gleyber Torres, who was set to make his second appearance for Triple-A Scranton/WilkesBarre on Wednesday. Torres went 1-for-3 with a single, walk, caught stealing and fielding error in his Triple-A debut on Tuesday.
WINGING IT
Greg Bird (bruised right ankle) felt good after taking batting practice in the cage on Wednesday. He said he’ll be off on Thursday and is scheduled to take live batting practice Friday and Saturday before flying down to Tampa on Sunday. Girardi said Bird will play in one extended spring training game before beginning rehab games with the Single-A Tampa Yankees.
At this point, Bird feels no pain in any of his baseball activities. “Really encouraged,” he said. “Moving around feels great. My swing felt good. Good feedback from the coaches, too, which is good. Because I feel it, they see it.” … Gary Sanchez returned to the lineup on Wednesday in the two-hole after getting a day off Tuesday . ... A young fan was hit by Chris Carter’s broken bat in the seventh inning in a section behind the camera well on the third-base side. The kid was treated by Yankee Stadium medics.