ACE OF CLUBBED
Yanks must hope Tanaka dud a case of Opening Day jitters
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Masahiro Tanaka, honorary Baby Bomber? No, the Yankees’ veteran starting pitcher didn’t join Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge in sporting an Opening Day faux hawk at Tropicana Field. Yet at the conclusion of their 7-3 loss to the Rays, their franchise-record sixth straight defeat in a season opener, it was Tanaka, 28 years old and partaking in his third pinstriped kickoff, who uttered (through an interpreter) these surprising words:
“Looking back, just because it was the first game of the season, maybe I was a bit hyped up. I feel like I just didn’t have good control over myself.”
Hence Yankees fans received an ultra-quick reminder concerning their team’s tightrope-navigating mission: The Yankees’ season can still be a success, lowercase letters, even if Tanaka can’t match the new standard he established for himself last year. Judge, who doubled home the club’s first run of 2017, and Sanchez, who went 0-for-5, can blossom, as can Greg Bird and Luis Severino and many guys who currently work in the minor leagues.
However, can it be a full-blown SUCCESS, a developing club that qualifies for the postseason, without Tanaka pitching like an ace in his potential walk year? That, friends, is quite difficult to envision no matter how open-minded and analytical you consider yourself.
Tanaka, coming off a brilliant spring training in which he compiled a 0.38 ERA in six games totaling 23 2/3 innings, put together one of the worst starts of his majorleague career. He lasted just 2 2/3 innings, his second-shortest outing, while setting a personal nadir by allowing seven earned runs. He threw 23 pitches just to get out of the first inning, in which he gave up three runs to the home team, and after the Yankees bit back with two in the top of the second, the right-hander surrendered two in the second and two more in the third. Even as the Yankees’ bullpen quieted down the Rays, the Yankees failed to capitalize sufficiently on seventh- and ninth-inning rallies, ensuring Tanaka would get tagged with a deserving loss.
“There are going to be days when you don’t have your great stuff,” manager Joe Girardi said. “But usually, because of his command, he can find a way to get through it. Today he didn’t have his command, either. It’s hard to figure out. It’s one game. Don’t make too much of it. Back to work on Saturday [against the Orioles in Baltimore].”
“He’s usually very good at having a couple of pitches to go to if something else isn’t working,” pitching coach Larry Rothschild said. “But today, because command-wise overall he was off, he really had nowhere to go.”
Rothschild mentioned Tanaka’s velocity was “up a little bit,” and the PITCHf/x data at Brooks Baseball substantiate that assessment. Tanaka’s four-seam fastball and splitter, which lacked its proper bite, both registered about a mile an hour faster than last year’s norms (90.6 and 86.6 mph respectively, as per FanGraphs). That would mitigate some of the concerns about the next question that ultimately arises whenever Tanaka throws a dud. The man with the slight tear of the UCL in his right elbow insisted that his arm felt fine.
“It’s tough,” Tanaka said. “From Day 1 of spring training, I was looking forward to this day. And I just wanted to go out there and make a strong performance but I just wasn’t able to do it.”
“You get concerned about everybody, no matter what,” Rothschild said. “He’s really good at self-correcting and straightening things out. I think he’ll get back on it pretty quickly.”
Can the Yankees do the same with veterans CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda finishing out this series? This team’s starting rotation behind Tanaka promotes little confidence. This starting rotation’s long-term future, with Tanaka owning an optout upon the completion of this campaign, features far more confusion than clarity.
Hence the importance of this opener winding up as a Tanaka aberration. With all the hype surrounding this youth movement, the Yankees must hope their most reliable starter suffered a surprising case of curtain-opening jitters and nothing more.