Lineup Analysis: Yankees @ Red Sox 4/22

So begins another series to add to the illustrious Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry. Tonight the Yankees face Jon Lester. Lester is off to one of his best starts in his career posting a solid 9.00 K/9 rate along with 1.24 BB/9, 0.62 HR/9 rates. His .308 batting average on balls in play is right in line with his 
career BABIP. A 2.17 ERA is what has been posted where his FIP shows his ERA should be around 2.35, still very good. 
The Yankees will send out the following lineup to try and tackle Lester and his great numbers:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF L
2. Derek Jeter, SS R
3. Carlos Beltran, DH S
4. Alfonso Soriano, LF R
5. Mark Teixeira, 1B S
6. Brian McCann, C L
7. Yangervis Solarte, 3B S
8. Ichiro Suzuki, RF L
9. Brian Roberts, 2B S
 
All the Yankees' switch hitters will go against Lester tonight; along with that three left handers and 
two right handers will bat. Now to analyze the lineup:

Interesting choice to have left hander and former Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury lead off against the lefty starter. 
Since 2010 Ellsbury has flip flopped in batting average vs leftys but this year he is hitting well over .400 in these 
situations. Ellsbury has not seen much of Lester at the plate but should know a decent amount about him. Jeter 
will bat second and not much to say about him other than that second is a good slot for him pretty much all the time.
Carlos Beltran has been locked in at the plate from the left side of the plate but tonight he is batting right handed, where 
he has recently been picking up the pace. Alfonso Soriano has been on and off but against Tampa Bay 
he seemed to start getting his swing down driving balls to the opposite field and the gap. This is a good 
sign for Alfonso to get hot now during a tough stretch of games for the Yanks. Teixeira is batting fifth and with only one 
game down off the DL he looked pretty good driving the ball deep, Joe should still be cautious as Tex is known to slump 
in April. Brian McCann is hitting seventh against the lefty, probably not too good a night for him as his career stats show 
he favors a right handed starter. Solarte is putting together some nice ABs and making decent contact, at seventh 
he'll make Lester work for his outs. Ichiro is hitting well and so he will be slotted in at the 8th spot and a struggling 
Brian Roberts will hit 9th.

My revised lineup for maximum success tonight would look a little like this:
1. Yangervis Solarte, DH
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
4. Mark Teixeira, 1B
5. Alfonso Soriano, RF
6. Carlos Beltran,DH
7. Brian McCann, C
8. Ichiro Suzuki, RF
9. Dean Anna, 2B S

Before you go crazy, I originally had Beltran leading off which would've had a couple of benefits. Beltran has a 
notoriously good eye as his career .358 OBP indicates, and he also has the team's second best batting average. 
I swapped him with Solarte because Solarte is second on the team with a .328 average and like mentioned earlier, 
he has grinded out some great ABs; his switch hitting also helps his own cause and he has been a HUGE source 
for RBIs lately. Everything else should look pretty normal. Tex over Soriano as im not sure if Soriano is fully in one 
of his amazing stretches yet. Beltran at sixth will put together a nice platoon effect so no bats will stack. I'm not 
expecting too much from McCann tonight so i slotted him at seventh as Ichiro gets to hit eighth and Anna ninth. 
Ichiro has speed and has been hot so i'd keep him in even against the left hander and Anna should start over 
Roberts as Brian has had a really bad time to start the season out.

As always, it’s a long season so remember that one game doesn’t make the season! Enjoy the game everyone!