NEW YORK -- Masahiro Tanaka threw in the outfield before tonight's game, and Joe Girardi said all systems were still go for the Japanese righty's return to action Sunday afternoon in the series finale against the Blue Jays.
In fact, not only will Tanaka make one more start this season; Girardi said if all goes well on Sunday, Tanaka will make another start, probably next Saturday against the Red Sox at Fenway in the second-to-last game of the season.
And that, Girardi said, should be enough to tell the Yankees what they need to know about Tanaka going forward.
Asked for the countless time why the Yankees are risking throwing Tanaka this year rather than allow his partially-torn ulnar collateral ligament the entire winter to recover, Girardi said, "Because we feel that if his arm is going to be OK, its going to be OK. And if it’s not then we want to have it done so you don’t miss parts of two seasons, in a sense."
"It," of course, is Tommy John surgery, and it is the Yankees position that if Tanaka is not OK after Sunday, or a second start, they would proceed with the surgery in October, costing Tanaka all of 2015 but probably giving him enough time to come to 2016 spring training fully recovered.
But if the Yankees were to wait until next February or March to see him pitch in a game, it could cost him part of 2016 as well. "We think it’s a risk worth taking," he said.
Tanaka is expected to throw between 70-75 pitches on Sunday.
Beltran back: Girardi said he believed Carlos Beltran, whose wife Jessica suffered a miscarriage earlier this week, would benefit emotionally from returning to action tonight, so he penciled him into the lineup in the No. 5 slot as the Yankees DH.
"I woulda used him yesterday if I felt there was a spot pinch-hitting," Girardi said. "And sometimes, for athletes, for anyone, it’s good to get back out there, to doing what you’re used to doing, and living that normal life. Obviously he’s going out there with a heavy heart and we’ve got a heavy heart with him, but hopefully it helps getting him back out there."
No place like home: Tonight's starter, Hiroki Kuroda, has a 6-3 career record and 4.09 ERA vs. Toronto in 10 career starts, but he has never lost to the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, going 4-0 with a 2.36 ERA in his four starts at home. Kuroda has beaten the Blue Jays twice already this yea, going 6-1/3 innings and allowing three runs in a 5-3 Yankees win at the Rogers Centre on June 25, and allowing four runs in 5-2/3 innings of a 6-4 Yankees win here on July 25. But the No.'s 2 and 3 hitters in the Toronto lineup, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, have four and three home runs off him respectively.
Ten and counting: It's been well-document but worth mentioning again that Toronto starter Mark Buehrle has not beaten the Yankees since April 10, 2004. In the interim, he has lost 11 consecutive decisions to the Yankees and is 1-13 with a 6.14 ERA against them in 20 career starts. On the bright side, his only victory against the Yankees came here at Yankee Stadium -- well, actually across the street at Yankee Stadium 2.0 -- 125 months ago when Buehrle was a member of the Chicago White Sox. Naturally, the only player on the current Yankee roster in that game was Derek Jeter, who went 1-4 in that 7-3 Chisox win.