Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 8/13

Game one post Alex Rodriguez. Game One AA. Here we go, a new chapter begins this afternoon as the New York Yankees welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to the Bronx for their first game since the 2004 season without Alex Rodriguez being an active member on the team. Yes I realize there were years he was suspended for steroids or injured that made him technically not active but just go with it, it’s Saturday. In this afternoon matchup the Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound on his normal spot in the rotation while the Rays will counter with Matt Andriese.

Tanaka heads into this start with the Rays fresh off a victory after logging back-to-back losses, the first time this has happened to the Yankees ace all season. Tanaka pitched well in his last start though to turn things around striking out eight Cleveland Indians batters in a victory but those two consecutive losses before that still scare you. Especially considering that Tanaka pitched poorly in both starts.

Andriese has been stretching himself out after being in the bullpen earlier this season and has been on a strict pitch count the last two contests but will be ready to go as long as the Rays need him tonight. Hopefully the Yankees offense makes it another short night for Andriese.

The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET inside beautiful Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV. It seems like a forgone conclusion at the time of this writing that Nathan Eovaldi will not be able to make his start tomorrow as scheduled so we may see the return of Luis Severino tomorrow on normal rest or we may get to see Chad Green tomorrow and Severino on Monday an extra day of rest. One game at a time though, go Yankees!