The ball soared into the night, on its way into the right-center field seats, and you stood on the mound and looked in disbelief and frustration at the heavens above.

Kyle Seager had taken you deep for the second straight time, only this time, he had turned your 2-1 lead into a 3-2 deficit in the fifth inning.

Dr. Tanaka and Mr. Hyde once again.

But you steadied yourself, you regained your composure, you held the fort, until Alex Rodriguez picked up where he left off at the All-Star break with the solo opposite-field home run off Joe Beimel in the seventh inning that gave you a 4-3 victory over the Mariners at the Stadium.

If Rodriguez (19 homers) continues to enhance his performance even as he closes in on his 40th birthday nine days from now (a big if indeed), if Mark Teixeira continues his 40-home run rampage, you won’t necessarily have to pitch like a lights-out ace, Masahiro Tanaka. Nights like this will be good enough.

Masahiro and the hero, Comeback Kids.

The pitcher who has always known how to pitch and the hitter who has always known how to hit.

Members of the Mutual Admiration Society.

“I think he’s just been more consistent lately. I think his fastball command’s better. I thought his split-finger got better as the night went on,” Rodriguez said of Tanaka. “But he’s also mixing in a slider, and I think he’s doing a better job of damage control. And for us, especially here at home, it’s such a weapon having [Dellin] Betances and [Andrew] Miller in the back end of the bullpen, ’cause we know in a tight game like today, we don’t have to try to do too much. One run may be the difference, and it was today.”

Tanaka: “It seems like once the ball comes off his bat, it just kind of flies.”

Twelve home runs have flown off bats against you over 74 innings this season. You surrendered 15 over 136 ¹/₃ innings in 2014.

“They were just bad pitches that I threw, and he [Seager] got the most out of it,” Tanaka said. “But other than that, I felt pretty good out there. Pitches were coming out of my hand pretty good, and was able to pitch the way I wanted to.”

When Rodriguez was watching you from afar early last season, he was watching artistry.

You were on the Most Wanted List of the world famous New York Yankees, and you saw how Hideki Matsui relished the grand stage, and so you came, you saw, and you conquered.

You showed up with a splitter the likes of which Major League Baseball had hardly seen, and in the blink of an eye you were Joe Girardi’s ace. You were this $155 million man and the eyes of the world on you couldn’t make you bat an eyelash. The 2014 Yankees didn’t have A-Rod, they didn’t have Mariano Rivera, they didn’t have the vintage CC Sabathia — but they had you. You stood as evidence that the Steinbrenner sons would sneer at the $189 million luxury tax if it interfered with the business of winning just as dad would have done.

You oozed swagger and command on the mound, you made it look so damn easy. You were 12-4 with a 2.51 ERA, you were the front-runner for the AL Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards.

Then everything changed for you, and for the Yankees. That dreaded UCL tear in your right elbow. The specter of Tommy John surgery.

You apologized to the Yankees, your teammates and Yankees fans, even if it was totally unnecessary.

Then the long rehab in lieu of Tommy John surgery.

Then the wrist tendinitis and forearm strain this April.

You have displayed flashes of brilliance that offer encouragement, but the totality of your work this season has left you a mystery man.

You were the designated ace and Rodriguez was the designated hitter and no one could be sure about either one of you.

Even now.

A year off from the game for a chronic, contrite slugger having a blast apparently is easier to overcome than pitching with a fragile arm that could blow at any time. At least so far.

“If you take away Seager, he was really good,” Girardi said. “He made two mistakes.”

You reached 94 mph on the radar gun over the first four innings. You struck out seven.

“I think a lot of the offspeed stuff were going from strike to ball, and they were swinging at ’em,” Tanaka said.

Your importance to this team, to this season, cannot be overstated or overemphasized with Sabathia struggling the way he is.

“I really wanted to come out strong,” Tanaka said.

He came out of the break strong enough. A-Rod came out even stronger.