You know what possibly the best thing about Major League
Baseball is? I personally love the fact that the games are played basically
every single day. Sure, I love football and basketball as well from time to
time, but watching your team lose on a Sunday only to have to feel that sting
for a few days or a week can sometimes just be torture. In baseball if you have
a tough loss on Sunday you usually go right back out on the field on Monday and
can turn things around. At the same time a big win on Sunday can be erased just
as fast the following Monday with a tough loss, it is just one of the many
things that make the game great in my opinion. With that said the New York
Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays are back at it again tonight inside the
Rogers Centre with the second game of their three-game set to open the 2018
season. Yesterday afternoon we all watched as JA Happ and Luis Severino squared
off to kick off the season and tonight we are treated with another great
pitching matchup. Masahiro Tanaka, who normally starts on Opening Day for New
York, will take the mound for the Yankees while the Blue Jays will counter with
Aaron Sanchez, who missed almost all of the 2017 season with an injury for
Toronto.
Tanaka made his Major League debut pitching in the second
game of the season back in 2014 against these same Toronto Blue Jays inside the
Rogers Centre and he will do so again tonight after Luis Severino took the
Opening Day nod from him here in 2018. Tanaka gave up a home run to the first
batter he faced that season and gave up a ton of home runs in 2017, a
career-high 35 long balls to be exact, which led the right-hander to focus on
his fastball command and control in hopes of lowering that number significantly
here in 2018.
Sanchez missed most of the 2017 campaign with Toronto due to
lingering blister issues on his throwing hand. Sanchez has put to bed any
rumors of this becoming a recurring issue this spring after showing no signs of
trouble while in camp with the Blue Jays. In Sanchez’s final tune-up start
before the season he allowed just one earned run in 6.1 innings pitched at home
against the Atlanta Braves, hopefully a sign of what’s to come if you are a
Blue Jays fan.
The game will be played at 7:07 pm ET inside the Rogers
Centre in Toronto and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB Network. You can
also follow along with the MLB TV and the MLB.com app or you can tune into the
WFAN radio broadcast with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. No matter how you
get to follow along enjoy the game and go Yankees!
