NEW YORK _ A former ace of the Yankees rotation showed Friday afternoon those days might not be completely behind him.
Masahiro Tanaka, who started the last one-game playoff the Yankees played in 2015 against Houston, won't be getting the nod Tuesday night when the Yankees likely host the Twins in the 2017 wild card.
Luis Severino, who surpassed Tanaka in status this season, will.
But, should the Yankees win and advance to the Division Series, Tanaka suddenly looks like a very formidable Game 2 starter, assuming Sonny Gray gets the ball in Game 1.
Regardless, the Yankees (90-70) could not have received a much more encouraging outing going into October than the one they received by Tanaka, who struck out a career-best 15 over seven shutout innings in a 4-0 victory over the Blue Jays.
Featuring a splitter one opposing team talent evaluator described Friday as being "absolutely filthy," Tanaka struck out the side in the first and 10 of the first 14 batters he faced in a perfect 42/3 innings. The 15th hitter, Ezequiel Carrera, broke up the perfect game bid with an infield single to second. Tanaka shrugged it off, picking off Carrera after he stole second base. Tanaka, who came in 12-12 with a 4.94 ERA, but 7-5 with a 3.80 ERA over his previous 15 starts, allowed three hits and zero walks.
If there was one cloud over the proceedings, it was the performance of Dellin Betances. Brought on with a 4-0 lead in the ninth, the right-hander, who had not allowed a run or a hit in his previous five appearances, allowed a leadoff single to Richard Urena and a walk to Teoscar Hernandez. Joe Girardi quickly came with the hook, calling on Aroldis Chapman to face Josh Donaldson, a former MVP. Chapman struck out Donaldson on a slider, then retired Jose Bautista on a ground out. He struck out former Yankee Rob Refsnyder swinging at a 101-mph fastball for his 21st save.
The Yankees had eight hits, two apiece by Greg Bird (two doubles and two RBIs) and Didi Gregorius.
After Tanaka's dominant 13-pitch top of the first, in which he struck out all three hitters on splitters, the Yankees went to work on Joe Biagini (3-13) in the bottom half. Jacoby Ellsbury improved to 29 for 80 this month with a one-out single and Aaron Judge walked for an AL-best 126th time. Gregorius singled to load the bases and Starlin Castro's infield single, on a trickler to the right of the mound, brought in Ellsbury to make it 1-0. Bird's sacrifice fly to center made it 2-0. Joe Bigiani struck out Chase Headley to end the 26-pitch inning.
Judge's RBI single in the fifth made it 3-0 and Bird's RBI double in the sixth made it 4-0.
