ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With the Yankees close to a deal that would strengthen the back end of the best bullpen in baseball, Masahiro Tanaka pitched like a much-needed front-end starter Tuesday night.
As Tanaka was dominating the Rays with control of three pitches, the Yankees and Orioles were completing a trade that brought lefty reliever Zach Britton to The Bronx for three minor league pitchers.
While that deal was being worked out, Tanaka delivered his best performance of his up-and-down season by hurling the Yankees to a complete-game 4-0 victory over the Rays in front of 19,579 at Tropicana Field.
Following his good but not great start on July 15 in Cleveland, Tanaka acknowledged he needed to improve and Tuesday he delivered the best outing of his 16 starts. For the first time, Tanaka (8-2) got through the seventh inning with his sixth complete game as a Yankee and first since April 27, 2017 against the Red Sox. It is the second complete game by a Yankees pitcher this season, joining Luis Severino.
“The cutter was in play, the split was very good and he located the fastball,’’ pitching coach Larry Rothschild said of Tanaka, who threw a season-high 105 pitches, allowed three hits, a walk and fanned nine.
Because Tanaka was working on eight days’ rest because of the All-Star break and the Yankees’ shuffling their rotation after Sunday’s rainout, he was asked if the crispness and efficiency was a product of being fresh.
Miguel Andujar slides safely into third in the seventh inning.Getty Images“I was ready to go Sunday and I was able to make some minor adjustments using these two days. That said, I think that might have helped me pitch a little better tonight,’’ said Tanaka, who retired the first 12 Rays before C.J. Cron started the fifth with a single.
A walk to Ji-Man Choi followed, but Tanaka struck out Daniel Robertson with a 2-2 breaking ball and fed Mallex Smith a 3-6-1 ground ball. The only other scoring threat by the Rays was in the seventh when Cron doubled with two outs but Choi grounded to the right side.
The victory stopped a five-game losing streak to the Rays and improved the Yankees’ record to 64-32. It also cut AL East-leading Red Sox lead over the Yankees to five games, with Boston losing to the Orioles.
Austin Romine, the Yankees’ No. 1 catcher with Gary Sanchez landing on the disabled list Tuesday with a right groin problem, drove in two of the Yankees’ three runs with a ground out in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Didi Gregorius plated a run with a ground out in the first inning and Neil Walker’s two-out single to left in the ninth scored Miguel Andujar.
“That’s what Masa is capable of doing when he has all his pitches,’’ Romine said.
With Tanaka at 82 pitches after seven, Aaron Boone got Dellin Betances up in the bullpen at the start of the eighth but never summoned him. As the ninth unfolded Aroldis Chapman was up but not needed because Tanaka ended the game with three ground-ball outs.
“If it became a save situation or if the pitch count really climbed or if he labored we were prepared to do something,’’ Boone said. “But otherwise I thought he was in total command and not a lot of stress really throughout the night for him.’’
Getting Britton doesn’t put the Yankees out of the market for adding a starter to a rotation than needs an upgrade. Yet, when Tanaka pitches like he did Tuesday night, the urgency to land that starter dips just a bit, because when he is right Tanaka is more than the third or fourth starter he has been all year long.
