BIG TOE STEPS UP FOR YANKS!
Torreyes hits walkoff single, Tanaka rebounds in win over Texas:
The Yankees’ emerging cracks the past two weeks have been easily identifiable. Blatant bullpen struggles and a continued lack of two-way production out of first base have been the most obvious – and most often cited – laments for what had been a 1-8 slide to drop into a virtual firstplace tie with Boston in the AL East.
Joe Girardi saw it differently, however, and you couldn’t fault the Yankee skipper for taking a longer and more traditional managerial view when posed that question before they posted a last-ditch comeback win in Friday’s series opener against Texas.
“I think ironing out our pitching is the concern,” Girardi said flatly before the game.
No pitcher on the staff was dealing with a more heavily wrinkled 2017 than Masahiro Tanaka, but perhaps all it took to get him straightened out was a little reminder of home.
Tanaka saved one of his best and most efficient performances of a disjointed season for his first major-league duel with Japanese countryman Yu Darvish, needing 100 pitches to complete eight impressive innings of three-hit, nineK ball.
The Yanks even overcame Gary Sanchez’s run-scoring passed ball in the ninth to tie it on Brett Gardner’s homer in the bottom half, before Ronald Torreyes’ RBI single in the 10th lifted them to a soggy 2-1 victory at the Stadium.
“You really need this one. When you get a performance from Tanaka like that … you need to win that game,” Girardi said afterward. “We’ve been struggling and you get a brilliant performance by Tanaka, his best performance of the year. He had everything going … Everything was better tonight.”
Tanaka hardly was the most promising candidate for such a lights-out showing after he’d gone winless in seven starts (0-6) since his previous victory back on May 8. The lone acceptable outing among those — 6.2 innings and one earned run allowed in a no-decision to open the Yanks’ recent 1-6 western swing — was followed by another mysterious clunker (five earned in four innings) in which Tanaka was tagged for three more home runs of his 21 allowed already this season.
Still, the skidding Yanks had no choice but to hope their $155 million erstwhile ace would be torqued up to face Darvish for the first time in the majors in a game that was being nationally televised early Saturday morning back home.
“I think it’s an exciting time for the country of Japan,” Girardi said. “8 a.m., that’s breakfast. Breakfast at Wimbledon, Breakfast at Yankee Stadium.”
Omelettes were pushed back nearly two hours due to a silly 102-minute rain delay at the start – in which it barely rained.
But both righties, who had squared off four times previously in Nippon Professional Baseball, mowed down their opposing lineups from the outset, carrying the scoreless knot deep into the game.
“I’m sure it meant a lot to (Tanaka) to go toe-to-toe with him,” Girardi said. “Now let’s just build on this.”
Tanaka had everything working – four “crisp” pitches, as Girardi put it – but so did Darvish, who fanned 10 in his seven shutout frames.
“I thought it was a team effort, but my stuff was there tonight,” Tanaka said through his translator. “I was excited going into the game, but once the game starts, you’re not actually going against Darvish, you’re going against the Texas lineup.”
Since last meeting in 2011, of course, both imported starters had enjoyed strong success in MLB along with multiple injuries, with Darvish missing the entire 2015 season following Tommy John surgery and Tanaka bypassing that procedure with mixed results over the past two years.
Even before this dual gem, you’d have to think that CC Sabathia’s hamstring disablement probably bought Tanaka a few more chances to work out his issues, beginning the day with an unseemly 6.34 ERA (now 5.74).
If those confounding poor performances continued, of course, the Yanks would have to eventually decide whether to do something drastic with him – like a DL shutdown of his own – and/or add another starter before sliding further in the playoff race.
Notably, Michael Pineda and Luis Severino also have endured multiple shaky outings apiece in recent weeks following terrific starts to the season. The former has been tagged for at least five runs in two of his past four starts, while Severino’s ERA has risen more than a half-run from an All-Star caliber 2.75 to 3.30 while coughing up 10 runs over his past two appearances.
Has this been the inevitable lull, or more than that?
“That’s always a question that we talk about. I think that whenever you struggle for a while, I think people are gonna have a little self-doubt. But I think that’s normal,” Girardi said. “I think if you’re oblivious to your struggles, then they can’t get better. So they’re all working on correcting them, which I think is a great thing, and we’ll get them ironed out.”
Whatever the reason, Tanaka finally appeared starched and pressed, at least for one encouraging start against his fellow countryman.
Now it’s time for Girardi and the rest of the staff to figure out how to forge full steam ahead.