TORONTO — Ryan Goins had played the role of human out for Masahiro Tanaka. In four seasons as a Yankee, Tanaka had no more reliable soft spot than the Blue Jays infielder.
So Tanaka seemed in trouble, but not really in the sixth inning Friday night. He had walked pinch-hitter Kendrys Morales on four pitches. He said afterward he was trying to get Morales out, but he worked carefully because there were two down and because his human out was on deck.
“I know it,” Goins told me. “[Tanaka] knows it. Everybody knows it. At that point, I am 0-for-22 against him, I have never gotten the ball out of the infield against him, I have never even had a flyball out against him. It was all groundouts and strikeouts and my average exit velocity off of him was like 45 ¹/₂ .”
Goins had grounded to the mound and struck out already to go to zero hits, 22 at-bats. That is why Joe Girardi did not think of lifting Tanaka for the warmed-up Tommy Kahnle. And Toronto manager John Gibbons figured he had come this far with Goins, not starting Richard Urena, he said, because the rookie has been having trouble with balls down in the zone, where Tanaka so often throws when right. Gibbons also did not have a pinch-hitter at his disposal he liked all that much in this situation.
“I figured,” Gibbons said with a smile, “he was due.”
Then to make life worse, Goins fell behind 0-2. He noticed Todd Frazier off the line and wondered if he could volley one that way and in his mind he thought, “If I don’t strike out now, it will be a victory.”
The score was 4-1. One more strike and the Yankees would stay close in the game and Tanaka would have a shaky but tolerable outing.
But Tanaka left a slider up in the zone — another hanger in too many of them this season for the righty. Goins — no one’s idea of a masher — crushed the ball beyond the right field wall. Grand slam.
“It was a good matchup for [Tanaka],” Girardi said. “But then he hung an 0-2 pitch.”
There was no comeback, 8-1 being the final. The Red Sox won again. Boston’s AL East lead is four games, further accentuating that the Yankees will be hosting the wild-card game Oct. 3. Luis Severino will almost certainly be lined up to start.
But should the Yankees win that sudden-death game, what is Tanaka’s role? The probable next opponent would be the Indians. Corey Kluber would be prepped to start Game 1 and — if necessary — a decisive Game 5. And, at this point, Sonny Gray would be handed the job to face the Cleveland ace, moving Tanaka back to, at best, a concerning Game 2 starter.
“It is very disappointing,” Tanaka said.
There just have been too many games like this in Tanaka’s worst Yankees season, when he rides his slider and splitter relentlessly and makes enough mistakes with both to implode a game. He yielded three homers to the Blue Jays, two on sliders and one on a split that Teoscar Hernandez mauled in the third inning.
Tanaka has allowed 35 homers this season (tied for second most in Yankee history) and three homers in a game five times, as many as he had in his first three seasons combined.
In all, Tanaka was strafed for eight runs, seven earned. He had never given up seven earned runs in a game before 2017, when he has done so five times.
It has led to a 4.94 ERA and distrust. Tanaka had come off a short stint on the disabled list in August to make three terrific seven-inning starts in which he allowed just one homer. In that period, I actually wrote that he should start a wild-card game because his skill and veteran savvy meant he was unlikely to let a game get away from him.
But I had him confused with the Tanaka of previous seasons. In two of three starts since, he has been beaten up for seven earned runs. The unpredictability in performance just makes this version of Tanaka too risky for the wild-card game and — should the Yankees advance — a showdown or two against Kluber.
For if Tanaka cannot even retire his automatic out in a huge spot with an 0-2 edge, in what situation can the Yankees feel comfortable with him?