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Yankees Recap: Masahiro Tanaka Takes Mound Against The Twins

By Antonio Mendes

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Yesterday, the New York Yankees took on the Minnesota Twins at Century Link Sports Complex. The Twins had their fifth place starter Tommy Milone start today, while the Yanks would have Masahiro Tanaka take the mound.

Tanaka had the choice today to stay in Tampa and face the team’s Minor League team, or take a two hour trip to Fort Myers and take the Twins on. Though he didn’t have the best of days against the Twins, he’s still in the process of tweaking things to get ready for his Opening Day start against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Twins would get seven hits on Tanaka, those came with three earned runs, one run being a homer. That came in 4.1 innings of work, and with the lack of bat power from the younger lineup, it’d give him his second loss this Spring.

This would be the last start for Tanaka this Spring. He ends the campaign with a 3.07 ERA from a total of 14.2 IP. For Tanaka it wasn’t really about the stats this Spring, the focus was almost all on his health. His ‘ticking time-bomb’ of an elbow as some call it, seemed to be fine. His velocity was there, he has really just spent his time tightening up his placement.

There are high hopes for Tanaka this upcoming season, the team is looking for him and CC Sabathia to step up and lead a younger rotation. Everything right now is just speculation, whether it be on his elbow or performance. One thing that’s a definite is the optimism he has shown for what this season holds. If he is sure his elbow will hold strong for the 2015 season, why shouldn’t we? Not that there isn’t good reason to be worried, there also haven’t been any bad signs thus far.

As for the lineup today, it included a majority of small ball hitters. Opening Day starters today consisted of Brett Gardner, and back-ups Chris Young, Brendan Ryan and Austin Romine. Of those four Gardy and Young were the only ones to get a hit on the day. Later days of Spring these guys are just counting down until April 6th now.

The Yankees one run would come from Ramon Flores who continues to keep his name in the top considerations for a future Bronx appearance this year. He’d send  Young home on an RBI Single, Flores also made a fancy catch in the third at the warning track. The Yankees have a wide abundance of outfield talent flowing through the minors this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see even more young players making debuts than we have the last two seasons.

Tomorrow the Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field, first pitch at 1 pm.

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