The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays will once
again face off head-to-head inside the Rogers Centre as the battle for the
American League East Division crown and its supremacy continues. David Price is
out of the way for the Yankees, which is always a good sign, and the team is
looking to climb back into first place in the division with another series
victory. Donned with that task for the Yankees is Masahiro Tanaka who will face
off with a familiar foe in Marco Estrada for the Blue Jays. The game will be
played at 1:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.
- Tanaka took the loss in his last start against Estrada and the Blue Jays after allowing a couple solo home runs inside Yankee Stadium. The Yankees offense went to sleep as New York and Tanaka lost the game by the final score of 2-0 despite a quality start by Tanaka. If Tanaka can throw another quality start this afternoon and the offense can get clicking this team can climb back into the driver’s seat in the division.
- Estrada held the Yankees scoreless over 6.1 innings in his last start and out-dueled the Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka, his opponent in today’s contest as well. Estrada improved his career ERA against the Yankees to 4.50 ERA with his last start, hopefully that goes back up to around 5.00 after this start because the Yankees need a win.
These two teams have nine more head-to-head matchups
including this afternoon’s game which will undoubtedly decide the victor of the
American League East Division. I said this on Twitter (*shameless plug alert*
@GREEDYSTRIPES) and I will say it again here. The Yankees have to feel good
here, the Toronto Blue Jays won 11 games in a row heading into the series and
only held a 0.5 game lead in the division after the Yankees lost five games in
a row before the finale victory in Cleveland. Sample size, common sense and
history will tell you that the Blue Jays will not keep up at a .900 winning
percentage pace of the remainder of the season and the Yankees are extremely
unlikely to play under .500 baseball. If the Yankees can weather this storm as
the Blue Jays peak early they can catch them late with all their young arms and
legs they are infusing into the team and win this division. I have faith and
the team is playing like they do too. Go Yankees!
Tonight's lineup...
ReplyDeleteEllsbury 8
Gardner 7
Beltran 9
Teixeira dh
Headley 5
Bird 3
Gregorius 6
Murphy 2
Drew 4
Tanaka rhp
With how well Beltran has been hitting since May 1st, I like him in the 3-hole. I also like seeing Girardi giving ARod some time to rest, as he's looked tired.
BTW, @FinnGirlJess was the first I saw to say Bird should play 1B while Tex DHs, to give ARod a day off.
Jess responded to my post saying the same thing when she did, no?
DeleteI saw that later. What? You want me to read everything? LOL
DeleteIt does help...
Delete