The score was not indicative of the way the game played out. Homers by Stephen Drew and Bryce Harper accounted for the only runs until the seventh inning, when Ian Desmond’s throwing error brought home the tiebreaking run, and the Yankees proceeded to pile on insurance. In a tight game, the Yankees needed Tanaka to deliver, and he did. Even before the Yankees got the runs to get Tanaka his fourth win of the year, he had been superior to Scherzer on the night.
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Tanaka pitched seven innings, allowing just five hits, with no walks and six strikeouts. He threw 63 of his 87 pitches for strikes, following an effort in his last start when he returned from the disabled list to throw 58 of 78 pitches for strikes, racking up nine punchouts without a walk in Seattle.
“You talk about the efficiency in those two starts, that’s as efficient as he’s ever been, I think, when you talk about the amount of pitches he’s thrown in two seven inning games.” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I think his stuff is where it was last year.”
Last year, Tanaka was 13-5 with a 2.77 ERA and 1.056 WHIP in 20 starts. In six starts this year, he is 4-1 with a 2.48 ERA and 0.798 WHIP. This is what Tanaka can do when he is healthy, and why he is so vital to the Yankees’ hopes of not only returning to October, but making some noise when they get there.
Nathan Eovaldi, CC Sabathia and Adam Warren all are capable of excellence, as shown during New York’s current winning streak, during which the rotation has combined for a 2.27 ERA, with no starter allowing more than two runs. Pineda and Tanaka are more routinely dominant, and only Tanaka has gone seven innings during the last seven games, doing so in both of his starts. Doing it against a lineup as ballyhooed as the Nationals, in a duel with Scherzer, is something greater than facing a Mariners lineup that has scored the fewest runs in the American League.
“Obviously, I knew who I was going up against today, a good pitcher,” Tanaka said through an interpreter. “I’ve only had one year and a little bit here, so still, I have to build myself up to being a better pitcher.”
One year and change or not, Tanaka already has the respect of his peers.
“You always want to face the best,” Scherzer said. “I want to face the best lineups. I want to face the best pitchers. I don’t care. That’s who you measure yourself against. You don’t measure yourself against the worst, you measure yourself against the best. So, I’ve always relished those type of situations.”
Pineda takes down one former Cy Young winner, Tanaka takes down another, and it’s easy to see what the Yankees are capable of doing. But just as Tanaka has health concerns, having missed a month with arm trouble, Pineda is skipping this turn through the rotation to limit his innings load after having thrown zero major league pitches in 2012 and 2013, then being limited to 76.1 innings last year. He’s already at 70.1 this season.
It is obvious that the Yankees would like their chances in a playoff series a lot better with both of their top starters healthy. Any team would feel the same way. It is Tanaka’s thirst for these matchups that sets him apart.
“I think he enjoys the stage,” Girardi said. “I think that’s one of the reasons he came to New York, too. He enjoys the competition, the excitement of pitching here. I think he likes it. I think he enjoys it.”
The Yankees need to manage these pitchers to do all they can to be healthy into the fall, which is why Tanaka has thrown only 164 pitches in his two starts since returning to the rotation. Facing Scherzer is a big stage. The bigger one is where he really wants to pitch.
