Well that's certainly more like it. Coming off a recent stretch that could be argued was the worst starting pitching in baseball, New York Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka got back on track and in a resounding way on Friday. Tanaka struck out the side in the first inning against the Oakland A's and never looked back as he totals 13 K's and only 5 hits given up in 7.1 innings. Yes Tanaka took a hard-luck loss but the bigger picture is that he was in complete control and looked like the ace of the team the last few seasons. The outing also pushed Tanaka's K/9 rate back upwards to 8.46 and that numbers remains his best mark there since his huge rookie debut (and before the tear in his UCL was discovered). Now the big issue that remains here is Tanaka's sky-high 2.11 HR/9 but he did not give up a long ball against the A's and at home no less. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come but at least for now, Tanaka seems to have righted the ship. If it lasts or not is the bigger question. Personally Tanaka still scares me but at least this shows he can get his bite back on the fastball.
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