As much as any pitch, the split-finger fastball has keyed Masahiro Tanaka’s success as a Yankee. It’s his out pitch, the pitch he goes to when a big strikeout is needed.
But it wasn’t there for him on Sunday.
“It wasn’t coming out of my hand right,” Tanaka said after he was tagged for five runs on seven hits in four-plus innings in a 5-2 loss to the White Sox at Yankee Stadium. “It’s not just today, it’s been like that for a little bit.