If the Yankees do need to endure a one-game playoff, a prospect that seems much more likely after the weekend series against the Blue Jays, they have just the guy to pitch in it. Masahiro Tanaka proved that Sunday afternoon as he gave the Yankees the start they needed and a stop to the bleeding.
They still are 3½ games out of first place in the division after having lost three of four to the first-place team. So they look more like a wild-card entry than a division champion. But after following Tanaka's lead in a 5-0 victory Sunday, they can breathe more easily -- about their prospect of making the postseason and surviving a single-game wild-card playoff.