It's been 17 years since a Yankees pitcher has dominated playoffs like Tanaka
Masahiro Tanaka's 2017 regular season may have been his worst statistically since joining Major League Baseball three years earlier, but his playoffs this campaign have been a completely different story.
Tanaka hurled a gem on Wednesday, allowing just three hits to the Houston Astros during seven innings of shutout baseball to give the New York Yankees their first series lead in the American League Championship Series after a decisive 5-0 victory.
The 28-year-old Japanese export kept the already-struggling Astros off-balance with a lethal combination of pitches including a filthy splitter - which was on full display during the fifth inning when Tanaka got out of a tough jam by striking out Josh Reddick, which incited quite the reaction.
Filthy Splitter from Tanaka to Josh Reddick to get out of the jam pic.twitter.com/neU5pYqbyI
— Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) October 18, 2017
Tanaka threw 66 percent of his 103 pitches for strikes, but struck out eight hitters, was able to get nine out on groundballs, and kept spark plug Jose Altuve off the bases during a marvelous performance.
"Woof," Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius said after the game when asked about how well his teammate Tanaka pitched, according to MLB Network Radio. "His split. He was throwing it at 91 ... all over the place ... getting guys off-balance. I don't think they got a lot of hits off him.
"He's been pitching unbelievable his last couple starts."
It's been 17 years since a Yankees pitcher was able to put together two outings of seven-plus shutout innings in a postseason, dating back to Roger Clemens' consecutive scoreless outings against the Seattle Mariners (ALCS) and New York Mets (World Series).
In fact, only three Yankees pitchers have ever recorded multiple scoreless starts of at least seven innings in the same postseason: Whitey Ford, Clemens, and now Tanaka.
During three starts in the postseason, Tanaka has looked like the Clemens who showed up to dominate the Mariners and Mets in 2000 after a rough division series against the Oakland Athletics where he allowed 10 earned runs across two starts.
| PITCHER | SERIES | GS | IP | H | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roger Clemens | 2000 ALCS | 1 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 15 |
| Roger Clemens | 2000 WS | 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Masahiro Tanaka | 2017 ALDS | 1 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Masahiro Tanaka | 2017 ALCS | 1 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
Even Tanaka's start in Game 1 of the ALCS where he was outduelled by Dallas Keuchel wasn't too shabby either. He allowed all of four hits in six innings, but was stung by one bad inning where he allowed three of those four hits in defeat.
With the Yankees just one win away from reaching the World Series - further ahead of schedule than pundits and even the executive front office could have expected - Tanaka has been a key cog in the Yankees' postseason success.
If the Yankees reach the World Series and Tanaka continues to pitch the way he did on Wednesday against Houston, he could go down as one of the greatest postseason pitchers in Yankees history.