Bronx Hiro is looking world class
ANDREW SAVULICH/ NEWS
MASAHIRO Tanaka has elevated his game to another level in these playoffs, looking dominant on the mound, and carrying the Yankees within one win of a trip to the World Series. Simply put, Tanaka, who has reemerged as the ace of this pitching staff, is making up for his inconsistent regular season and then some with every gem he produces in October.
And there have been three gems in a row now — the latest coming in Game 5 of the ALCS, when the 28-year-old righty outdueled Dallas Keuchel, tossing seven scoreless innings in the Bombers’ 5-0 win over the Astros in front of a raucous sellout crowd in the Bronx.
“He was special again,” Joe Girardi said when describing Tanaka, who has a 0.90 ERA in the postseason.
“He’s been basically unhittable,” Chase Headley added.
This stretch, which began with a 15-strikeout outing against Toronto on Sept. 29 (his last start of the regular season), is exactly what the Yankees had hoped for when they signed Tanaka to a seven-year, $155 million deal in 2014. And it came at the perfect time — especially after he ended his potential opt-out campaign 13-12 with a 4.74 ERA and a career-high 35 homers allowed.
“I feel like I’m just keeping it real simple,” said Tanaka, who induced nine groundball outs over the first four innings before using mostly his lethal splitter to record six of his eight strikeouts over the final three frames.
“You go out there and you fight and you empty that tank. I think I’m just really clear of what I need to do out there, and I’m just executing that.”
As Greg Bird put it, with Tanaka’s stuff and his command, he was just “letting it eat” — which in baseball terms means giving it everything he’s got.
On Wednesday, Tanaka’s fastball hit 95.4 mph on the radar gun. And when he K’d Josh Reddick with a split to escape a first-and-second jam in the fifth, Tanaka spun around, pumped his fists and let some rare emotion show. He has thrown 22 straight scoreless innings at Yankee Stadium, and is 7-1 with a 0.96 ERA in his last eight starts at home.
“I think he understands what he has to do,” Joe Girardi said of Tanaka raising his game. “We’ve seen it a number of times. I thought he did it against (Yu) Darvish (in the regular season). He’s raised it as high as I’ve seen in the playoffs and the last start of the season.”
The Astros, which led the league in runs scored during the regular season, mustered just three hits off Tanaka, and have scored all of nine times the entire series. Jose Altuve, the possible AL MVP, went 0-for-4. he big question regarding Tanaka, who is still pitching with a partial UCL tear, remains the same: will he or won’t he opt out? It’s a potential $67 million question that seems to get more complicated by the day. But what is known is this: Masahiro Tanaka has enjoyed pitching in New York. And on Wednesday night, 49,647 fans enjoyed having him on the mound, when he outdueled Houston’s ace and carried his team within a win of a return to the Fall Classic.
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