TAMPA — If Masahiro Tanaka isn’t the Yankees’ Opening Day starter against the Astros on April 4 at Yankee Stadium, it means he is hurt.
While Tanaka is a given to make his second straight season-opening start, the names that follow the Yankees’ ace are also simple to identify.
What isn’t so easy is determining the order in which Luis Severino, Michael Pineda and Nathan Eovaldi follow Tanaka.
At this point, CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova are competing for the fifth spot.
“We kind of thought about it because we had so many things we were dealing with when we came back this spring we didn’t have anything set in stone,’’ manager Joe Girardi said about the pecking order of the rotation that had several health issues after last season. “We are starting to try and line them up. Obviously, you have to figure out who your Opening Day guy is and then you go from there. And we have to iron out the fifth-starter situation, too. We don’t have an exact read as of yet.’’
Severino started Tuesday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field against the Mets. It was his fifth game and third start. While it’s not likely he will slip into the second spot because his big league experience consists of 11 games, Severino has pitched very well.
Severino seemingly has erased any question that he will be one of the five. Remember, Girardi said the 22-year-old right-hander “had to earn’’ a spot at the opening of camp despite going 5-3 with a 2.89 ERA a year ago.
“He probably has pitched as well as anyone we have,’’ Girardi said before the Yankees’ 6-3 win over the Mets. “He is up to five innings and 75 pitches so he is where he needs to be. Everything he has done I liked it. It has been good.’’
Across four innings, Severino was very good. Then he surrendered two runs in the fifth.
“The first four innings I was throwing strikes,’’ said Severino, who allowed two runs, five hits, one walk and fanned five in 4 ¹/₃ innings. He threw 77 pitches, 48 for strikes. “In the fifth I was behind in the count and that is what happens behind in the count.’’
Girardi said he was impressed that Severino had a solid fastball if not overwhelming command.
“I don’t think he had great command tonight,’’ Girardi said. “He battled through it and it looked like he tired at the end.’’
Earlier Tuesday at the minor league complex, Eovaldi worked in a Triple-A game for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In four innings, he gave three runs — all on a second-inning home run by Buffalo’s Jorge Saez — three hits and fanned five.
Nathan EovaldiCharles Wenzelberg“The three-run bomb and other than that it was good,” Eovaldi said. “Working on fastball both sides of the plate. I was accurate and didn’t walk anybody. Just those three hits in the second. Split felt great, slider felt good.’’
Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said he was fine with Eovaldi’s outing.
“I thought he threw the ball pretty well. He clustered the three hits in one inning. There was a lot of good things. The breaking ball was good, the split was real good and overall the fastball command was good,’’ Rothschild said.
When camp began the Yankees were curious to see if the 26-year-old Eovaldi could build on last year’s 14-3 record in 27 starts. The record stood out because Eovaldi entered 2015 with a 15-35 big league record with the Dodgers and Marlins.
That the Yankees averaged 7.17 runs in Eovaldi’s starts certainly helped, but so did the development of the split-fingered fastball he toyed with late in the 2014 season as a Marlin and vastly improved under Rothschild.
“Where the breaking ball was and the fastball command going forward,’’ Rothschild said of what he wanted to see from Eovaldi coming into camp.
Eovaldi’s debut was put off by a groin problem that surfaced early in spring training, but counting Tuesday’s work he has made three appearances and should have two more to get him ready for whatever spot Girardi puts him in.
