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BRADENTON, Fla. — The frustration was clear as Masahiro Tanaka discussed his uneven start Thursday against the Pirates, but given his status as the Yankees’ ace, he knows it doesn’t mean much in the long run.
Tanaka’s right elbow felt fine, which is pretty much all the Yankees care about with less than three weeks remaining until Opening Day.
Still, throwing 50 pitches (30 strikes) over two innings is not what the Yankees expect from Tanaka, who allowed two runs on f our hits, including an Andrew McCutchen home run. He struck out one and didn’t walk a batter.
“At this point in spring training — for all of us — you get the next hurdle, then the next hurdle,” catcher Brian McCann said. “He cleared one today. Next time, he’ll pitch hopefully four or five innings. The most important thing is health and he looks great.”
Tanaka was not pleased with his fastball command, the most important piece of any pitcher’s repertoire.
“Overall, a bit frustrated with how everything turned out,” Tanaka said through a translator when asked to assess his start. “I think the worst part was that I just couldn’t get strike one, strike two. Just getting myself in bad counts.
“Particularly with the fastball, I wasn’t really satisfied with that. In my last outing, I wasn’t hitting my spots and today was the same case. I’ll work on that and try to be better next time.”
Manager Joe Girardi echoed that sentiment after watching Tanaka.
“I didn’t think he was extremely sharp, but I said, ‘You’re going to have those days early on in spring training,’” Girardi said. “It’s his third start, so we’ll build on it.”
Tanaka hadn’t allowed a run in either of his first two outings, so his overall spring stats still look good: seven innings, seven hits, two runs, one walk and six strikeouts. Think the Yankees would take that line every time he takes the mound this season?
Thursday’s outing won’t be tough for Tanaka to shake off, though he’ll be looking for more when he takes the mound next week.
“You know that you’ll have bad days like this,” Tanaka said, drawing on his experiences during his first two springs. “The good part is to get those bad days out in spring training rather than in the season. Through experience, I think that I’ve progressed enough to think that way.”
“I think he’s j ust trying to get ready,”