Joe: Tanaka’s hot streak outweighs his road woes
HOUSTON — Joe Girardi didn’t need anybody to tell him the raw and rank numbers that his starting pitchers accumulated in seven games against the Astros this season.
In those games, the Yankee starters went 1-4 with a 7.83 ERA versus the highest-scoring lineup in baseball. The Yankees went 2-5 in those games.
Thursday, Girardi set his rotation for the best-of-seven ALCS and tabbed Masahiro Tanaka for Game 1. He will be followed by Luis Severino, CC Sabathia and Sonny Gray.
Tanaka has pitched better at home, where he went 9-5 with a 3.22 ERA compared to 4-7 with a 6.47 ERA on the road, but that didn’t scare Girardi away from giving him a road start.
“He has been an interesting case the whole time we have had him. One year he has been better on normal rest and the next year he is better on longer rest. One year he is better at night the next he is better in the day,’’ Girardi said. “The sample size sometimes is just not enough.’’
Tanaka’s only outing this year against the Astros didn’t go well as he gave up eight runs and seven hits in 1 ²/₃ innings at Yankee Stadium on May 14 in a 10-7 loss.
Nor did Girardi ignore the role of the bullpen, if the Astros continue to attack his starters the same way they did in the regular season.
“I think it’s really important, but that has been our formula for the good portion of the year,’’ Girardi said of having a strong pen.
As for how he arrived at the order he did, Girardi considered the hot hand that Tanaka has.
“We talked about who is throwing well. How the stuff kind of sets up, and we decided to go that way. Obviously you can look at splits for [the Astros] and it doesn’t matter. They hit right-handers the same as they hit left-handers even though they have a number of righthanded hitters in their lineup,’’ Girardi said. “We decided to go this way based on what is going on the last month and the playoffs so far and go from there.’’
Tanaka has certainly delivered the best outing from the starters in the postseason. In Game 3 of the ALDS against the Indians, the righthander threw seven scoreless innings and led the Yankees to a 1-0 victory in the first of three consecutive elimination games they won.
Because Gray hasn’t thrown since Game 1 on Oct. 5 and isn’t slated to start again until Oct. 17, the right-hander was scheduled to throw a simulated game early Thursday night.