投げれば投げるほど、良くなる感じがした。
スゴイ。
それでも、無理しないで、十分に確認して欲しい。
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Masahiro Tanaka stellar in return for Yankees, who earn 5-2 win over Blue Jays
Tanaka picked up where he left off before his elbow injury in July, allowing a one run over 5.1 innings as the Yankees hit three home runs - two by Brian McCann - to beat the Blue Jays at the Stadium
It was the most-anticipated start by a Yankees pitcher in months and Masahiro Tanaka rose to the occasion.
He was the ace of the staff and in the conversation for the Cy Young Award back in July when elbow pain led to a diagnosis of a small tear of the ulnar collateral ligament and the medical advice to eschew surgery and rehab with rest, PRP treatment and a throwing program.
One game back after a 75-day disabled list stint, it looks like the right call.
Tanaka was every bit as effective as he was before he got hurt, allowing a lone run over 5.1 innings against the Blue Jays as the Yanks hit three home runs and scored a 5-2 victory before 48,144 at the Stadium on Sunday.
He improved his record to 13-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.47.
Brian McCann hit two home runs and had three RBI and Brett Gardner was 2-for-4 with a solo shot to power the Yankees. Derek Jeter continued his hitting tear with a fourth straight two-hit performance. The sellout crowd spent much of the seventh inning chanting his name as he came up with Gardner on second and none out, doubled to left to score him and stole third base. He scored on McCann's second homer for a 5-1 lead.
The righthanded Tanaka allowed his one run on five hits and no walks with four strikeouts. He exited the game with a 2-1 lead and two men on base. Reliever Adam Warren struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
Warren also pitched a scoreless seventh. Dellin Batances allowed a run in the eighth, but David Robertson delivered a scoreless ninth for his 38th save.
While this start for Tanaka was significant because it took place with the Bombers still mathematically in the hunt for the second AL wild card, it was also meaningful in projecting what he will be able to do in 2015.
"I think it's important for us as an organization, for him, to see what we have moving forward," manager Joe Girardi said before the game. "So I've been looking forward to this day. I'm sure he's excited. I'm sure there's some anxiety in there as well. Obviously we know he loves to compete, so I'm sure he's looking forward to it."
During the outing Tanaka threw all the pitches in his arsenal and showed no dip in velocity. His splitter had nice action on it. He used his curveball a bit more liberally than he had in his first 18 starts.
While effective, Tanaka wasn't quite the dominator he'd been before the 75-day layoff. His strikeout rate was down a bit and his hits-allowed rate up a tick. Still Girardi said that was to be expected.
"Quality of stuff is the thing. It's the big test," Girardi said when asked what he would look for. "And you can't necessarily expect him to be as sharp as he was right before he got hurt because he had a bunch of starts under his belt and he was in midseason form. When he came out of spring training he was pretty sharp. You want to see the quality of stuff."
The Jays scored their run off him in the first inning after Jose Reyes and Jose Bautista started the frame with back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. Tanaka induced a double play grounder from Edwin Encarnacion that got the run home and struck out Dioner Navarro to end it.
In the second ining he got an inning-ending strikeout on Ryan Goins with a runner at third, the second out in a run of 11 of 12 Toronto hitters retired that took him through the fifth.
Girardi had said the Yankees were looking to keep him in the 70- to 75-pitch range in this start and he was only at 61 there, so he returned for the sixth. Reyes singled and Bautista hit into a force out. On the 70th pitch of the outing, Encarnacion singled to right and Girardi took Tanaka out.
He left the field to a standing ovation and tipped his cap to the sellout crowd.
Tanaka will get another start before season's end against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in the club's last regular season series. The Yankees hope that the two starts could give them an idea about Tanaka's durability entering next season, but understand there are no guarantees.
"Obviously if he throws well today and he has no issues and he starts again and he has no issues, you feel pretty good about moving forward," Girardi said. "Tommy John Surgery was the surgery of the year and that's hard to predict."