In the first two games of this series, Yankees starters Domingo German and J.A. Happ gave up 5 earned runs each, which was enough scoring by the A's to stick each of them with a richly-deserved "L" on their respective records, German falling to 16-3 and Happ dropping to 10-8. What scary hurler do the Yankees have up next? It's the highly respected Masahiro Tanaka, who happens to be enduring a poor season for the Yankees for the second time in his 6 years wearing the pinstripes. Come to think of it, I wouldn't blame him if he secretly wished he could wear the pinstripes all the time. That's because his ERA this season is eerily similar to his uneven 2017 season. Check this out...
In 2017, Tanaka's ERA was 4.74, a very good 3.22 at Yankee Stadium but a quite awful 6.48 on the road. This season, his ERA is 4.56, again a very good 3.26 at home, and again 6.48 on the road. When I said his 2017 and 2019 ERAs were 'eerily similar", I wasn't overstating it, was I?
In fairness to Tanaka, however, I would like to take the liberty of throwing out one of his bad 2019 road starts. That's because it took place in that weird stadium in London that played like a pinball machine. On that Saturday back on June 29th, neither Tanaka nor the Red Sox' Rick Porcello made it out of the 1st inning. Porcello got lit up in the top of the 1st for 6 runs while recording only one out. When it happened to him, few in the crowd blinked, because although British sports fans are unfamiliar with baseball, it's universally understood around the world that Rick Porcello sucks. Porcello hurriedly left the field as fans showered him with derisive calls such as "You really cock'd that one up, ya bloody wank-ah!" But, when the same thing happened to Tanaka in the bottom of the 1st inning, the most common word rippling through the crowd was "Blimey!" The locals understood baseball to be a game of nine "innings", but this first inning ludicrously took an entire hour to complete! Fans were growing more convinced that Americans were one sandwich short of a picnic.
Anyways, if you throw out Tanaka's two-thirds of an inning at London Stadium, his road ERA this season is 5.62, almost the same as Domingo German's which was 5.58 entering Tuesday night's game (and is now 5.82). Of Tanaka's 10 road starts in American stadiums, only four resulted in quality starts, and three of those took place in April and May. I excused his dog's dinner in London, but his July 25th start in Fenway Park can't be overlooked. Tanaka was left in the game for 87 pitches as he absorbed a 12-hit and 12-run pounding. Bottom line is that since the beginning of June, Tanaka's 5 road starts have resulted in a 7.76 ERA for him, but only two losses for the Yankees. The good news for Yankees fans is that Tanaka has just put together back-to-back quality starts for the first time in two months, shutting down the Blue Jays 1-0 in Toronto and doing just enough to defeat the Indians last weekend 3-2.
Tonight will be Masahiro Tanaka's first start against the A's in over two years, when he lasted just 4 innings while allowing 8 hits and 5 earned runs in a 5-2 loss in Oakland.
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