Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 9/21


The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will continue their three game set this week with the middle game of their series tonight inside Tropicana Field. I feel like a poker player holding pocket aces as I type this because there will be a couple aces on the mound tonight. First the Yankees will send their ace Masahiro Tanaka to the mound to square off against a former ace that was slowed down by injury for the Rays in Alex Cobb. Cobb may not be the ace right now but he’s back on the mound and looking to regain his form, let’s just hope he doesn’t find it until at least tomorrow morning at the earliest.

Tanaka has been the ace and leader of the Yankees staff that everyone expected him to be when they signed him here in 2016. New York is 22-8 in his starts this season and Tanaka is 6-0 with a 1.86 ERA in his last eight starts which is a huge reason why the Yankees stuck around for so long in the AL East and Wild Card playoff chases. Tanaka has beaten the Rays on August 13th and September 10th recently and you know what they say, third time is the charm. No hitter tonight, calling it and jinxing it at the same time.

Cobb will be making just his fourth start of the season tonight after returning from Tommy John surgery and has looked good in each of his previous three starts. Cobb has thrown consecutive quality starts before tonight’s contest including his first win last time out against the Toronto Blue Jays. That was Cobb’s first win in 722 days.

The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Tropicana Field and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV. Tanaka searches for his 14th win of the season tonight but with Rick Porcello winning his 20th game the AL Cy Young Award may be out of reach. That’s all we have left to play for now, positioning and personal growth and achievements. Depressing I know, I’ve been depressed for a week now because of it. Either way a win always has a way of cheering me up a bit so let’s get one. Go Yankees!



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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)