Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 4/18

The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays continue their three game set today on the holiday that only comes once every fifth day for Yankees fans, we call it Tanaka Day. The Yankees will send their ace Masahiro Tanaka to the mound to face off with Jake Odorizzi for the Rays. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET and can be seen on Fox Sports 1 and MLB TV. New York is still searching for their first series win of the season and a win tonight would go a long way to helping the team achieve those goals in this series inside Tropicana Field.

• Tanaka was not the Tanaka that made 18 starts in the first half of the 2014 season in his second start this year but he was much better than he was on Opening Day. Tanaka pitched well enough to earn the win against the Boston Red Sox thanks to a seven run first inning by the Yankees offense. Tanaka held the Red Sox to four runs (three earned) in five innings on 97 pitches. Any step forward is good for Tanaka and he definitely took a step forward last outing so let’s hope for another step (or two) forward tonight in Tampa.

• Odorizzi has pitched well this season allowing just one run combined in his two starts to start 2015. Odorizzi allowed one run on two hits in his last start against the Toronto Blue Jays as he pitched eight innings. Odorizzi has pitched well against the Yankees in an extremely small sample size of 2-1 with a 4.70 ERA, numbers that hopefully go up by the end of the day today.

I know it’s a Saturday night and all but let’s still come out and support our Yankees tonight against the Rays. Whether it be on the blog, on our Twitter account or down in Tampa St. Pete let’s support our Yankees tonight and let’s beat those Rays. Go Yankees!!!