SLACK MAS'
Tanaka shaky vs. Jays, but bailed out by Yanks’ bats
Masahiro Tanaka wasn’t close Tuesday night to the form he flashed last week in Boston when he fired a threehit shutout at the Red Sox.
Tanaka, however, picked the right night to start against the Blue Jays. Toronto went with slop-throwing Mat Latos and the Yankees hit five homers on the way to an 11-5 victory at Yankee Stadium.
“Obviously, a lot of my pitches weren’t sharp tonight. I was trying to be a little too aggressive in the strike zone,’’ said Tanaka, who gave up four runs and eight hits [two of them homers to Steve Pearce] in 6 ¹/3 innings. “A lot of my pitches caught the plate too much and that is one of the reasons I wasn’t as good as in Boston.’’
Tanaka has won four straight and is 4-1 after starting the season with a loss and no-decision.
Since the start of 2016, Tanaka is 8-1 with a 2.26 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankees loss and the team has won 12 of those games. Tanaka has won his past seven starts at the Stadium, the longest streak by a Yankee since 2001 when Roger Clemens went 7-0 during a seven-game stretch from April 29-July 23.
The Yankees’ 16 hits were a season high and the five homers matched their most this season. Aaron Hicks replaced Jacoby Ellsbury (left elbow problem) in cen- ter field and hit seventh. Hicks responded with a second-inning home run against Latos and went 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Chris Carter replaced Greg Bird (who went on the disabled list with a bruised ankle) at first base and batted eighth. Carter has started eight games at first and hit eighth twice. He went 1for-3, scored twice and drew a walk.
Girardi mentioned Matt Holliday, Austin Romine and Rob Refsnyder, who was elevated from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday to take Bird’s roster spot, as candidates to play first, along with Carter.
Holliday, who hasn’t done anything but DH this year, started working at first Monday and according to Girardi will continue to do so.
Dellin Betances entered in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and slipped on his first pitch. The ball squirted out of his hand and he was called for a run-scoring balk.
“That is not something you see every day. Guy throws 100 mph and it goes 6 feet,’’ Girardi said of Betances, who stranded three by throwing a 0-2 fastball clocked at 99 mph by a looking Kendrys Morales.
Lefty reliever Chasen Shreve was elevated from Triple-A and replaced righty Luis Cessa, who had worked 3 ¹/3 innings in Monday night’s 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays.