Masahiro Tanaka made his much awaited return for the New York Yankees, leading his team to a 5-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday at the Yankee Stadium, MLB scores and standings update indicated.
Tanaka, who has not pitched in the major league since July 8 due to an elbow injury, threw for 5.1 innings for the Yankees where he finished with a 2.47 ERA with four strikeouts.
After the match, Tanaka said that he felt great relief after feeling no pain in his right elbow, which makes it possible that the ace pitcher won't undergo a Tommy John surgery to repair a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi was impressed with the way Tanaka pitched on Saturday, and the club is looking forward to the Japanese's next start on Saturday against the Boston Red Sox.
"Pretty darn good," Girardi said of Tanaka's performance in an MLB scores and standings update on ESPN. "It's extremely encouraging and now we'll try to get him to start again on Saturday."
Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild was also encouraged by Tanaka's performance, but he is still unsure how the 25-year-old's ligament will hold up in the long run.
"Are we going to know fully until five years down the road? Probably not," Rothschild said. "It's possible that he can get through this for quite a while. It's possible that it comes up and bites him, and that's it. We're hopeful that's it's the earlier scenario and that he's going to be fine and have a nice, long career with no problems."
With the win, the Yankees improved to 80-75 this season, but their hopes of making it into the playoffs are still dim at this point, according to the MLB scores and standings update.
With seven games left to play in the season, they are still 4.5-games behind the Kansas City Royals in the race for the second wild card spot in the American League standings.
Watch the highlights of the Yankees-Blue Jays highlights below, while more highlights are available on MLB's official YouTube page. Updated standings are available on this link, while Sunday's result can be seen below.
NY Yankees 5 - 2 Toronto
Washington 2 - 1 Miami
Boston 3 - 2 Baltimore
NY Mets 10 - Atlanta 2
Pittsburgh 1 - 0 Milwaukee
Chicago White Sox 10 - 5 Tampa Bay
Kansas City 5 - 2 Detroit
Cleveland 7 - 2 Minnesota
Houston 8 - 3 Seattle
LA Dodgers 8 - 5 Chicago Cubs
Texas 2 - 1 LA Angeles
Oakland 8 - 6 Philadelphia
San Diego 8 - 2 San Francisco
Colorado 8 - 3 Arizona
