Tanaka rises to challenge against fellow countryman

THE ball is juiced. He’s tipping pitches. Hiro’s a Zero, the backpage headline blared. Mess-ahiro, another backpage headline screamed. Was it his elbow? A mechanical flaw? Fatigue? What happened to that vaunted splitter? Who hijacked Masahiro Tanaka? Who was this imposter with a 5-7 record and 6.34 ERA wearing No. 19? Perhaps all it took for Tanaka to rediscover his long-lost inner ace was the mere sight of the Rangers’ Yu Darvish on the mound, an elder countryman he had faced four times in Japan and greatly respects. This was the Tanaka the Yankees so desperately need to keep The Bronx burning and shock the baseball world. “[Tanaka] had everything going tonight,” Joe Girardi said. His body language spoke to a pitcher with a renewed swagger. An artiste. He threw 25 first-pitch strikes and kept the Rangers ridiculously off balance and on their heels. The slider slid. The sinker sank. The fastball whistled at 94 mph. His command commanded. No one hour-forty-two minute delay was going to rain on his parade. He left after eight innings of threehit, nine-K dominance. He deserved better than a no-decision on a night when Brett Gardner homered off Matt Bush in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings after a second Gary Sanchez passed ball on an Aroldis Chapman strikeout of Adrian Beltre in the top of the ninth had given the Rangers the lead. He deserved better on a night that ended with a Ronald Torreyes walk-off RBI single that gave the Yankees a 2-1, 10-inning victory after Chasen Shreve had been one pitch from walking in the goahead run in the top of the inning. “When you get a performance like [Tanaka’s],” Girardi said, “you need to win that game.” The bigger victory was the possibility Tanaka had found himself.

“Just because of the way I’ve been pitching, it does boost your confidence a little bit,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “But this game is over. After today, my mindset is for my next start.”

Tanaka fanned Shin-Soo Choo on a 94 mph fastball leading off the game, and Nomar Mazara two batters later on a diving slider. He powered a 94 mph fastball past Carlos Gomez to end the second inning.

Trouble arrived in the third. When Tanaka escaped a first-and-second, noout jam when third baseman Torreyes gloved a hard grounder off the bat of Choo and began a 5-6-3 double play from his knees. Tanaka roared with delight and waited with a high glove-five for Torreyes. He finished the fifth and finished Carlos Gomez with a 96 mph and then got Jonathan Lucroy looking at an 85 mph breaking ball. He needed to show up as vintage Tanaka because Darvish refused to blink.

Darvish, armed with his 95 mph heater, had Aaron Judge waving comically at a 72 mph 1-2 floater in his first inning, a hint of the dominance to come: seven innings of two-hit ball.

The pitching duel mesmerized baseball fans in Japan tuned in there at 8 a.m. and baseball fans Friday night.

“I think it was good for the Japanese fans,” Tanaka said. “I don’t know who was more popular in the game, but I’m just glad that I was able to give out a pretty strong performance.”

Yuki Ohba writes for Japanese broadcast company NHK. “Tanaka doesn’t try to hide his excitement facing against Darvish,” Ohba said. “Darvish is, for Tanaka, one of the special pitchers, and one of the special elder pitchers. ‘ Sempai’ means an elder person that you have to respect. Tanaka regards Darvish as a sempai. So hopefully, that matchup is gonna give us the real stuff from Tanaka himself.” It sure did. “Once the game starts, then you’re not actually going against Darvish, you’re going against the Texas lineup,” Tanaka said. “My focus was on every batter, every pitch, and I think I was able to throw with good conviction.”

Tanaka’s brilliance inspired Yankees behind him. Torreyes’ backhanded grab robbed Elvis Andrus of a screaming ground double inside the third-base bag and Didi Gregorius ranged wide to his left to snare a hard grounder and throw Mazara out at first.

“I think I was able to mix around a lot of pitches, get strikes on the corners, so I think I had good command overall,” Tanaka said.

Tanaka threw a 96 mph fastball to Rougned Odor on his 87th pitch and struck him out on a curve on his 88th pitch. On most any other night: Masa-hero.