TANAKA TUESDAY. IT. IS. BACK.
It’s been a long time coming.
A few weeks ago, nobody would have believed me when I said “Tanaka Tuesday” is back. But, tell ’em Kevin.
And it’s not just casually back.
Hypothetical situation: Let’s say that you return back to your college a year after graduating. You want to see your old friends and experience college life again, but you do so without going crazy.
This would be known as “casually back”. You have a few beers, you go to a couple bars, but you do not black out like the good old days. This is NOT the way to return to college.
Instead, you need go back to college with a full force of partying and drinking. You must go ALL the way back. Like this guy.
Tanaka Tuesday was ALL the way back last night. It was so back, Masa might have blacked out after the game. Who knows? I’ve heard Tanaka loved tequila shots back in the day (I’m totally making that up…or am I?) (I am.)
After Monday night’s debacle, we really needed a bounce-back win. It wouldn’t have been imperative to the pennant race but, at this point of a baseball season, momentum and morale play a big role.
Losing another game in Tampa would have been our 5th straight loss there. And, losing after that Gary groundout in the 9th would have sucked even more.
Thankfully, it didn’t come to that!
Because Masahiro Tanaka was a goddamn machine. He was a MONSTER.
He threw a COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT. Holy shit.
9 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs/ER, 1 walk, 9 K’s.
3 hits and 9 strikeouts? UNREAL.
He’s not normally a strikeout pitcher, but he was so damn locked in last night. When this guy is in a groove, he can be unstoppable.
Yankees Shutouts Since 2014:
Masahiro Tanaka – 3
Rest of team – 2— Katie Sharp (@ktsharp) July 25, 2018
AND, he has 6 complete games since 2014. All other Yankees combined only have 5.
Clap it up, Masa!
Remember “Playoff Tanaka” last year? That was the Tanaka we saw last night…If he gets hot again, heading into August, look out!
Other than Tanaka, this game was pretty quiet. We were able to win this game without hitting any homers. Shocking, right?
And 3 of our runs came off of outs! HUH?!
We had a RBI groundout from Didi in the 1st, a RBI groundout by Romine in the 5th, a sac fly by Romine in the 7th, and a 1 run single by Neil “He Doesn’t Always Walk” Walker in the 9th.
Very interesting scoring night for us – look at that boy Austin Romine with 2 RBIs!
I feel like I had so much more to say after Monday night’s loss…mostly because I was pissed off and frustrated with Sevy and Gary.
But this recap is so much more simple: “Tanaka was amazing. He pitched a shutout. We won. Oh and we didn’t hit any home runs.”
That was basically the extent of the game.
The other big news is that we traded for ZACH BRITTON.
Damn, our bullpen is MEAN now. Chappie, Dellin, Britton, Holder, D-Rob, Chad Green?
Best ‘pen in baseball.
NOW, will we see Britton in action today? Probably, if it was a 7 pm start. Between us, I was totally thrown off by this noon start time.
But I was able to knock out this blog with a little time left before the game!
Hope you enjoy!
No Eovaldi on the mound vs the Rays, since they just traded him to Boston. Trade Deadline SZN is in full effect!
Let’s win this fucking series. If we lose another series in Tampa, I’m sure my blog tomorrow will be another angry rant. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen!
LET’S GO YANKS.
Follow me on Twitter @JohnFerraro_
Oh and side note: The picture of Tanaka in the thumbnail is an ALL TIMER. The guy has a winning smile, plain and simple.