FOR MAS PANIC

Worry Yanks

Girardi said. “He’s not too worried about results. He’s working on things. When you’re established as a starter or a position player, you can do those things. Some of the other guys have to compete.”

Tanaka has made 20 and 24 starts over his first two years in the majors, but he’s hopeful that a full year of health will allow him to reach the 32 or 33-start plateau for the first time since leaving Japan for the Yankees. “The goal is to get there,” Tanaka said. Although the results weren’t there Thursday, Tanaka didn’t appear to have any troubles physically. His velocity seemed to be where it should be according to McCann, who remained impressed by his starter’s stuff despite the location issues.

“He’s just working on stuff, getting ready for the season,” McCann said. “Fastball command is everything. It sets up all your other pitches. When he’s got his fastball command, he gets early outs. Today, it was off a little bit. The stuff was there.”

Tanaka is still lined up to start the Yankees’ opener on April 4, though Girardi won’t make that official until he’s built up his pitch count and shown that he’s ready to go. With that in mind, Girardi isn’t putting too much stock in a bad outing, especially with a 27-year-old pitcher that has been through a lot already in his career.

“He knows how to get ready — to get ready the right way,” Girardi said. “He’s not a young kid that needs to come and air it out and try to impress me. We want him ready for the beginning of the season, not today.”