Masahiro Tanaka Schools Reyes, Jays In Fine Art Of Grinding It Out
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Jose Reyes walked to the plate with a specific plan on how to handle Masahiro Tanaka.
"I made up my mind before the game that I was going to swing at the first pitch," Reyes said. "You don't want to face Tanaka with two strikes."
Reyes gave the Toronto Blue Jays a fast start, lining that first delivery over the right-field wall for a home run Tuesday night. Yet that was all the AL East leaders managed against the New York Yankees in a 3-1 loss, their seventh defeat in 10 games.
"We went out into the field and we're like, '1-0 on Tanaka, here we go,'" Reyes said. "But then he just shut us down. Even when we started getting his pitch count up, we figured we're going to get to him later on. But then he just went right at it and the next thing you know, it's the seventh inning. When he needs to make a pitch, he makes it."
Tanaka earned his major league-high 11th victory as the Yankees recorded their 14th straight home win over the Blue Jays. Brett Gardner hit a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole to give New York an early lead it held.
"What he's done has been remarkable," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He can grind out starts, and make adjustments and give us distance. He wins."
"I just said to myself that I really need to hang in there and not give in," Tanaka said via an interpreter. "Things got a little more close to normal starting from the second."
Tanaka (11-1) struck out 10 in six innings and left with an AL-best 1.99 ERA. The Japanese rookie has made 14 starts this season — he's gone at least six innings in every outing and never permitted more than three earned runs.
"It's hard to say that his start isn't as good as anyone who has ever pitched," Girardi said. "He's 11-1 as a rookie. He's first in the AL in ERA. He's right up there in strikeouts. His start is as good as anyone I know."
Tanaka made his big league debut April 4 at Toronto and Melky Cabrera tagged him for a leadoff home run on the third pitch.
Reyes provided an even earlier jolt this time with a drive into the lower deck in right, and slapped his hands as he rounded first.
Cabrera followed with a liner between Tanaka's legs that knocked off the pitcher's glove. But Tanaka scrambled to retrieve the ball behind the mound and threw out Cabrera, and never again allowed a runner past second.
"He can throw any pitch at any time. He threw that splitter a lot tonight, even on hitter's counts," Reyes said. "We'll just have to go out and get 'em tomorrow. No Tanaka tomorrow."
Tanaka moved ahead of Toronto's Mark Buehrle for the most wins in the majors. Buehrle starts Wednesday night in the middle game of the three-game series.
Dellin Betances threw two innings and David Robertson closed for his 17th save in 19 tries. The Yankees' pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts and became the latest to slow down the Blue Jays, limited to 24 runs in their last 11 games.
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