'HIRO HOUR
Tanaka dominates Jays again to keep fleeting East hopes alive
With their chances of catching the Blue Jays atop the AL East on life support after dropping the first three games of their series against Toronto, the Yankees relied on Masahiro Tanaka to salvage the weekend.
And the right-hander delivered, shutting down Toronto’s fearsome lineup over seven shutout innings in a much needed 5-0 win in The Bronx on Sunday.
The win snapped a five-game losing streak and got the Yankees back to within 3 1/2 games of the Blue Jays.
“They came in and took three in a row and my mindset was, ‘I’m not gonna let these guys sweep us,’ ” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “I wanted that game.”
After surrendering 30 runs over the first three games of the series, Tanaka kept the Blue Jays off the scoreboard, as he pitched around three doubles, struck out seven and didn’t walk anyone. Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise after he limited the powerful Toronto lineup to just one run in a complete-game victory last month.
Tanaka was pitching on four days’ rest for just the fourth time this season and showed no ill effects, featuring a fastball that hit 95 mph and an effective splitter. It came on the heels of an eight-inning outing against Baltimore in which Tanaka gave up just one run in a 2-1 defeat.
This time, though, he got some support. A pair of sacrifice flies in the second provided a 2-0 lead before Dustin Ackley hit his first home run as a Yankee, a two-run shot in the fourth. The little-used Ackley got the start over Greg Bird at first because of some impressive numbers against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.
The victory gave the Yankees’ confidence a serious boost.
“We want to win the division,” said Alex Rodriguez, who was honored in a pregame ceremony for reaching the 3,000-hit milestone in June. “A lot of people counted us out. I wouldn’t do that. There’s a lot of baseball to be played.”
Rodriguez’s eighth-inning RBI double gave the Yankees enough of a cushion to avoid using Andrew Miller after the closer pitched two innings Saturday.
After finishing a disappointing homestand at 4-6, they visit the Rays to begin a nine-game trip that includes trips to Citi Field and Toronto.
“You look at the weekend, it’s not what we wanted,” Girardi said. “We really had a chance to win two games. We came out of here with one. You can’t afford to lose four in this situation. Now we’ve got to go have a good road trip.”
An effective Tanaka at the top of the rotation is key to any hopes the Yankees have of catching the Blue Jays.
“In spring training, there was a lot of wondering about what was gonna happen with his elbow,” Carlos Beltran said. “It seems like it’s responding well. Earlier in the year, he was a little bit down, but now he’s pitching smart. He throws 89 [mph] when he has to throw 89 and throws 95 when has to throw 95. He has everything under control.”
And that’s one of the reasons the Yankees refuse to discuss who they would want on the mound in a wild-card game.
“We’re not even thinking that,” Brian McCann said. “We’re trying to win the division.’’
So don’t expect Girardi to start mapping out his rotation to set that up anytime soon.
“Absolutely not,” Girardi said. “We need to keep our foot on the gas to win the division. You do not want to be in a one-game playoff if you can avoid it.”