He's Baaack

After two-and-a-half months on the shelf, Masahiro Tanaka returned with an impressive start Sunday for the Yankees. With doubt about his slightly torn -- and then medicated -- elbow ligament would hold up, he passed his big test, going 5-1/3 innings against the Blue Jays, allowing just a run and five hits, while striking out four. (These images are from a June game also against Toronto.)
While Tanaka and the Yankees are basically in uncharted territory in going the rehab route to avoid Tommy John surgery, this outing (and another one expected next weekend against the Red Sox) will go a long way to determining how much pitching depth the Yankees have heading into 2015 -- especially in light of Tanaka's 13-win rookie season in the US and the buzz he brought to everyone of his starts. Will he hold up in the long haul? No one knows that -- but Tanaka's performance certainly overcame a lot of skeptics who expected he couldn't avoid surgery. For now, he has.

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