Titletown Tanaka
Masahiro Tanaka is a great pitcher no if’s ands or buts about it. The one thing that’s stopping him from being an all time great is consistency. He’s a streaky pitcher that can go on some great runs with this incredible stuff but usually right in the middle of those runs he puts up a dud or two so it’s hard to trust him all the time, but you want to know where I always trust him? BIG GAMES!
No matter if it’s in the postseason, where he has 30 IP over 5 games with 25K’s and a 1.50 era, or an important game in the regular season against one of our rivals, you know he’s going to ring his A game. He proved that yet again, this past weekend.
Everyone knew how much this past series with the Rays meant, so everyone knew how big a game Sunday’s matchup with last years Cy Young award winner Blake Snell was after taking a loss to the Rays and tying the series 1–1 the day before. But booyyy did Tanaka deliver throwing a gem, with 7.0 IP, 5H, 1ER, 0BB and most importantly a win. From now till the end of the season we can only hope it’s smooth sailing for Tanaka, but we know at some point he might hit a rough patch. One thing for sure, when there’s a big game, expect Titletown Tanaka to show his pinstripes.
His next opportunity to do just that will be this Saturday, in another big matchup with Blake Snell, who is most certainly looking for revenge for his 7–1 loss at the hands of Tanaka and the Yanks. Bet on Tanaka
