Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Atlanta Braves 3/31

Uh oh ladies and gentleman but I think we just had the return of the game thread here on the blog. These are exciting times as we finish off the exhibition season and begin the real season on Sunday. Tonight the Atlanta Braves break in their newly built SunTrust Park with an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. This should be fun, these games always are. The Yankees will send Michael Pineda to the mound for his final spring tune-up before the regular season while the Braves will counter with the ageless one Bartolo Colon.

Pineda has not faced this group of Braves much as the Atlanta offense has a whopping 11 at-bats against the right-hander combined during his career. Pineda is entering a contract season though in 2017 and we as Yankees fans may be in for a treat as we watch him throw this season for no other reason than that. Players tend to do better in their contract seasons, period, so maybe this will be the season Pineda finally puts it all together. Only time will tell.

Colon on the other hand has seen this Yankees offense quite a bit as he has bounced around the league during his career to varying degrees of results. Starlin Castro, Jacoby Ellsbury, Matt Holliday and Gary Sanchez have all hit above .300 against Colon albeit in small sample sizes, especially the sample size for the Yankees catcher. Like Pineda though none of these stats matter once the bright lights go on and the game gets started so let’s get to it.

The game will be played at 7:35 pm ET inside SunTrust Park in Atlanta and can be seen on the YES Network locally in New York, Fox Sports South in the Atlanta area and MLB Network if you’re out of either market. Enjoy and Go Yankees!