TAMPA, Fla. -- The Yankees are not ready to say if they are lining up Masahiro Tanaka to start on Opening Day, but the right-hander said that he would "absolutely" consider the assignment to be a great honor.
Tanaka threw 36 pitches in the bullpen on Sunday at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where he is scheduled to face the Mets on Wednesday. That creates a scenario where Tanaka would be ready to take the mound on April 6 against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.
"It will be a great thing if a pitcher is able to pitch on Opening Day," Tanaka said through an interpreter. "But for me, obviously I got hurt last season. My main goal here is to try to have a healthy season throughout the year."
Assuming Tanaka makes it through Wednesday's start without issue, his next outing could come on March 31 against the Twins in Fort Myers, or in a Minor League game in Tampa. Five days later, the Yankees are set to open the regular season.
The Yankees have been encouraged that Tanaka has shown no signs of discomfort, despite sustaining a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament last July. He has pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings over two spring starts, allowing two hits, no walks and recording five strikeouts.
Asked to evaluate his spring, Tanaka said, "Getting there. I still have a couple of more games to play for the [Grapefruit League] games, but so far it's been good."
CC Sabathia has served as the Yankees' Opening Day starter in each of his six seasons wearing pinstripes. But manager Joe Girardi indicated that there is no guarantee that Sabathia will take the ball on April 6, because he has been on a slower spring program coming off right knee surgery. Michael Pineda is also an option to start the opener.
"We're trying to line people up. But I can't give you an Opening Day starter, because it kind of depends on where we feel they're at," Girardi said. "We're just trying to get people lined up the best way we can."
Tanaka said that he has started on Opening Day only once previously, in 2012 for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He did not start his team's opener in 2013 because he was participating in the World Baseball Classic.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Tanaka would consider OD assignment a great honor
Dengan url
https://sehatbuahku.blogspot.com/2015/03/tanaka-would-consider-od-assignment.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Tanaka would consider OD assignment a great honor
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Tanaka would consider OD assignment a great honor
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar