Tanaka’s next start pushed to Monday

Nothing else has worked when it has come to fixing Masahiro Tanaka, so the Yankees are pushing the right-hander’s next start from Sunday against the Orioles in The Bronx to Monday in Anaheim, Calif., where he will face the Angels.

“Baltimore is really familiar with him, and I don’t think an extra day [of rest] is gonna hurt him,” manager Joe Girardi said Friday after he and pitching coach Larry Rothschild made the decision. “And he can work a little bit more.”

There’s plenty of work to be done, and it would be folly to think this is a magic solution to all that ails Tanaka, who is in the midst of what has been by far the worst stretch of his career. But, hey, it’s worth a shot. Tanaka has been bad for most of the season, particularly his past two starts, in which he gave up 12 runs in 10 2/3 innings. One of those outings came in Baltimore, where he was tagged for seven runs in 5 2/3 innings.

Anaheim is a more pitcherfriendly park than Yankee Stadium, and the Angels, without the injured Mike Trout, have a less dangerous lineup than the Orioles.

Tanaka, like Girardi, downplayed the significance of the switch.

“It just gives me a day,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “It’s no big deal.”

On the surface, that may be accurate, but at this point, nothing is insignificant with Tanaka. Even he admitted he never has faced anything like this before, either in the majors or Japan.

And he acknowledged that makes it more difficult for him to regain his footing.

“Yes, it does, but I’ve got to deal with it,” Tanaka said. “I’ve got to have a positive approach to it. That’s the attitude I have, and I’ll keep on going with it.”

Girardi, who added he is not going to a six-man rotation beyond this turn, said he hasn’t decided who will start Sunday’s game against the Orioles. It is at least somewhat dependent on what the Yankees need before that game.