Yankees eye returns for CC, Tanaka
BOSTON — After completing a 37-pitch bullpen session late Friday afternoon at Fenway Park, Masahiro Tanaka said his right shoulder felt well enough to rejoin the Yankees’ rotation next week.
“I feel good, but obviously I have to speak to [pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] and [manager] Joe [Girardi] and a date will be determined,” Tanaka said before the Yankees opened a crucial threegame series against the Red Sox.
Girardi said Tanaka will start one of the games against the Tigers in Detroit next week, but he was not sure which one.
“Let him come back the next two days. It will be Detroit, but let’s see how he feels before we announce it,” said Girardi, whose club opens a three-game series against the Tigers on Tuesday.
Tanaka last worked Aug. 9 against the Blue Jays and gave up three runs (two earned) and five walks in four-plus innings. The Yankees don’t believe the former staff ace will require a minor league rehab start. They took the same path with CC Sabathia. The veteran lefty last pitched the day before Tanaka and exited with a sharp pain in his right knee the likes of which he hadn’t felt in two years. He is scheduled to start Saturday against the Red Sox.
“It hasn’t been that long,’’ Rothschild said of Tanaka’s DL stint.
Despite an inconsistent season, in which he is 8-10 with a 4.92 ERA in 23 starts, how Tanaka pitches down the stretch could determine if the Yankees pass the Red Sox and win the AL East or need the wild-card ticket to enter October.
“It was a good session, very encouraging,” Tanaka said of the bullpen exercise. Girardi said Aroldis Chap
man’s hamstring problem has healed to the point at which the lefty was available to close against the Red Sox after not pitching since Tuesday against the Mets, when he suffered the injury covering first base for the final out.
“He is available, and he is the closer,” Girardi said. “We feel good about where he is at. It’s hard to simulate the intensity of the game, but everything else he went through, he passed.”
In Chapman’s past three outings prior to Friday, he had two saves, a blown save and an ERA of 13.50 and had walked four batters in 3 ¹ /3 innings.
When Sabathia came out of the game Aug. 8 in Toronto after three innings, the pain in his right knee had him thinking his career was kaput because the discomfort came without a warning.
But a cortisone shot and a lubrication process changed the veteran lefty’s mind.
“In the past, [discomfort] would build up. This came out of nowhere,” said Sabathia, who is 9-5 with a 4.05 ERA in 19 starts, but is 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA in his past three appearances. “Normally the cortisone does the trick after a couple of weeks. I knew once I got the cortisone I would feel a lot better, but just the fact that it came out of nowhere and all of a sudden I couldn’t throw, it was concerning.’’ Girardi said he hasn’t started to formulate an idea of when Greg Bird, Matt Holliday and Starlin Castro might return from the DL but acknowledged what their re- turn would mean to the lineup.
“I think you want to see how they are doing, but they were all middle-of-the-lineup hitters when the season started,” Girardi said. “If you get them back, our lineup is so much deeper with experience, which I think is important. You get Starlin Castro and Matt Holliday back with experience, and I think it will be important to this club.”
Castro was scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment Friday night with Triple-A Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre and Holliday was slated to join Single-A Tampa. Bird had played two games for SWB going into Friday night’s action.