Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka makes Wild Card push in win over Mariners

by Felix Pantaleon

Yankees starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka threw eight scoreless innings, striking out 10, in a 4-0 win over the Mariners in Seattle on Friday night.

SEATTLE — The Yankees have no idea who will take the mound for them when it’s do-or-die time.

Masahiro Tanaka may have made the most compelling argument for the job yet.

He turned in a masterful eight innings in a 4-0 win over the Mariners before 32,195 at Safeco Field on Friday.

Tanaka struck out 10, walked none and let just one runner reach third base. At one point, he retired 14 straight batters. After giving up a single to former teammate Robinson Cano in the first inning, he retired 14 straight Mariners, 11 either by strikeout or groundout.

With Luis Severino in a seemingly endless funk, it could be that the Yankees will decide between Tanaka or veteran lefty J.A. Happ for the chance to start the American League Wild Card Game.

Tanaka was dominant in the playoffs last year as the Yankees marched to Game 7 of the AL Championship Series and he started the 2015 Wild Card loss to the Astros.

What it means

Coming off an ugly series in Oakland, in which they lost two of three games to the A’s — their likely Wild Card opponent — the Yankees have won five of their last 10.

The Yankees were also 3 1/2 games ahead of the A’s at the start of the day to host the Wild Card.

Bombs away

The Yankees’ built their lead quickly.

Two-run home runs from Gleyber Torres (second inning) and Andrew McCutchen (third inning) gave them a four-run lead that would last until …

For McCutchen, it was his first homer since joining the Yankees in a trade with the Giants just before last Friday’s waiver trade deadline.

It was Torres’ 23rd blast of the season and his 100th-career hit, making him the fourth-youngest player in franchise history to reach the mark, behind Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Ben Chapman.

Both shots were high and far over the wall in left field.

Masa-hero

Tanaka was excellent.

Mike Zunino broke up the 14-outs-in-a-row stretch with a leadoff double in the sixth and he reached third when Jean Segura’s hard grounder deflected off Tanaka’s glove and bounced to shortstop Didi Gregorius, whose throw short-hopped first baseman Luke Voit for a single.

That was the farthest any Seattle player made it. Tanaka fanned Cano in the next at-bat to end the inning.

Tanaka entered the night on a roll.

Entering Friday, he was 3-3 with a 2.63 ERA in his previous nine starts. His season ERA had dropped from 4.68 to 3.83 over the span.

He’s had three straight starts of at least seven innings and no home runs.

Injury report

Shortstop Didi Gregorius (bruised left heel) came off the disabled list Friday. He didn’t start but he entered in the sixth inning, pushing Adeiny Hechavarria to third base. Miguel Andujar was pulled from the game in what looked like a defensive replacement.

Right fielder Aaron Judge (fractured right wrist) swung off a tee outdoors for the first time since going on the disabled list in late July.

Next

Yankees righty Lance Lynn (8-10, 5.10 ERA) vs. Mariners righty Felix Hernandez (8-13, 5.55 ERA) at 9:10 p.m. EST Saturday at Safeco Field.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.