These last two games could not have gone any worse for the Yankees. They continue to get pushed around in their own building by the Red Sox — Boston has won 19 of their last 30 games at Yankee Stadium — and their three most reliable setup relievers have all suffered some kind of arm injury. Outside of Cesar Cabral and maybe Matt Daley, the rest of the September call-up filled bullpen has been completely ineffective these last few days.
Even though the Rays have been losing, New York’s playoff hopes are fading fast because there simply isn’t much schedule left. They’re three back of Tampa for the second wildcard spot in the loss column with three head-to-head meetings left, but there are only 20 games left in the season after today. The Yankees also have to jump over the Orioles and Indians (again), the Orioles they meet for four games next week and the Indians who have the easiest schedule in baseball down the stretch. These last two games didn’t eliminate the Bombers from the postseason, but it sure feels like they did. Here’s the lineup that will face righty John Lackey:
- CF Brett Gardner
- SS Derek Jeter
- 2B Robinson Cano
- LF Alfonso Soriano
- DH Curtis Granderson
- 3B Eduardo Nunez
- 1B Lyle Overbay
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- C Austin Romine
And on the mound is … left-hander David Huff. Sigh. I know he’s had three pretty good long relief outings recently and could certainly do something similar today, but I have very little confidence in him against this Red Sox lineup.
It’s cloudy and cool in New York with no chance of rain. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. First pitch is scheduled for a little after 1pm ET and can be seen on FOX. Try to enjoy.
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