Wild, wonderful World Cup
Tanaka moving forward
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Masahiro Tanaka said he’s “moving in the right direction” as far as his injured hamstrings are concerned.
The 29-year-old righty, who has been out since June 8 and is expected to miss a month of action, will throw a bullpen session on Sunday.
“I haven’t been in action for some time, so the thing is to try and take some gradual steps,” said Tanaka, who added that he feels better. “We’ll definitely get there.
If the bullpen session goes well, Aaron Boone said Tanaka will throw another bullpen on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then, he’ll throw some kind of simulated game probably Friday and the Yankees will go from there.
“If you look back two weeks ago, there’s no way I would be able to move the way I did today,” Tanaka said after doing some agility work.
Tanaka is 7-2 with a 4.58 ERA in 13 starts. Jonathan Loaisiga has taken two starts in his place.
Tanaka has three years left on his deal at $67 million total.
YOU BE THE JUDGE
Aaron Judge took a pair of called strike threes that were outside the zone on Friday, and he wasn’t happy about it. Judge even said something to Phil Cuzzi, who was working behind the plate, something he usually doesn’t do.
Aaron Boone isn’t much of a believer in working the umpires.
“I think it probably has minimal impact,” Boone said prior to Saturday’s game. “I think there’s probably some kind of an art form to it and I think that art form can look a lot of different ways. Some guys can be a little more animated and a little more agitated, if you do it in the right way. Maybe it can help on the margins. But I think it can look a lot of different ways and I don’t think it should technically matter at all.
“I don’t think Aaron needs to start arguing any differently or being any different than who he is. Because he’s got a lot of people taking up for him anyway, just from the bench and everything like that so they hear about it.”
Judge struck out looking again in the first inning on Saturday — only this one was a properly called strike three. Judge finished 0-for-3 with a walk.
PITCHING CHANGE
Blake Snell will not pitch against the Yankees on Sunday, rather the Rays will have another bullpen day with Matt Andriese going instead. Snell is an excellent lefty, but the Bombers mash southpaws, and they’ve scored nine runs on Snell in his two starts against them this season ... Gleyber Torres got the day off on Saturday, with Neil Walker playing second. Austin Romine was behind the plate catching Sonny Gray, as usual, with Gary Sanchez also getting the day off.