Tanaka bringing ‘A’ game to help Yanks roll

NEW YORK — It has been a popular refrain that the Yankees’ winning ways started when the Baby Bombers arrived. To carve the numbers a different way, though, they have been playing their best baseball of the season every time Masahiro Tanaka has been on the mound.

Tanaka had his “A” stuff working again on Saturday, striking out 10 without a walk as he guided the Yankees to their seventh straight victory, a 5-1 decision over the Rays. New York improved to 22-7 when they hand Tanaka the ball, and no pitcher in the Majors has enjoyed more team wins.

“I’ve always thought, ‘Just go out there and do your job. Do the best that you can do,'” Tanaka said through an interpreter.

Only the Red Sox and Rick Porcello have as many team wins (22) as the Yankees and Tanaka; the Cubs and Jon Lester are second with 21. That staggering total means that for all of their second-half noise, the Yankees are still four games under .500 (54-58) when someone not named Tanaka starts a game.

“He has really stepped it up,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “You look at the second half, he has really stepped it up and performed at a really high level. You feel good every time he takes the mound.”

The right-hander has won each of his past six decisions since Aug. 7, going 6-0 with a sparkling 1.94 ERA over those 46 1/3 innings. Tanaka said that the major difference has been a mechanical tweak that he discovered on his own while throwing in the …

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