The first start of Masahiro Tanaka‘s career with the New York Yankees is officially in the books at the Rogers Centre. After two rocky innings, Tanaka settled down and dominated a talented Blue Jays lineup over seven innings.
Aside from the scoreless innings and pitch-by-pitch execution, two things stood out about Tanaka’s first performance: poise and command.
Despite the circumstances and early difficulty, Tanaka didn’t show any signs of nervousness or outward frustration when results weren’t present in the early innings. By keeping his composure, legitimate and evident talent eventually took over.
Over the course of the game, Tanaka’s command became more and more impressive. His final line included eight strikeouts against zero walks. To put that in perspective, only 28 starters achieved that line on multiple occasions last season, per Baseball-Reference (subscription required).
Through one career start, Tanaka is halfway toward company that includes James Shields, Felix Hernandez and Jose Fernandez.
Tanaka’s final line: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 R, 0 BB, 8 SO, 1 HR, 97 pitches
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