The Yankees and Pirates were rained out Friday night, so they will make up that game as part of a rare single admission doubleheader today. Rare for the Yankees, that is. The team’s last single admission doubleheader came way back in 2004. Since today’s second game will start roughly 30 minutes after the first game ends, let’s lump them both together in one game thread. That makes life easier.
Hiroki Kuroda is starting the first game this afternoon, and, as has been the case pretty much all season, the Yankees really need him to get his act together and not only provide quality innings, but bulk innings as well. David Phelps, Chase Whitley, and Vidal Nuno are essentially five and fly pitchers who drain the bullpen, so Kuroda needs to soak up some innings both today and every fifth day, especially since Dellin Betances is not available this afternoon after throwing two innings yesterday.
The Yankees have called up righty Jose Ramirez to be the 26th man for the doubleheader and he got the call almost by default. The only other pitchers in the minors and on the 40-man (and healthy) are Shane Greene, Manny Banuelos, and Bryan Mitchell, all of whom have pitched multiple innings recently and would have been on short rest today. Ramirez missed the first few weeks of the season with an oblique injury and has not thrown more than 1.1 innings or 30 pitches since being activated, so he can’t give the team much length. By rule, he must go back to the minors immediately after the doubleheader. Here is the Pirates lineup for Game One and here is the Yankees lineup for Game One:
- DH Brett Gardner
- SS Derek Jeter
- CF Jacoby Ellsbury
- 1B Mark Teixeira
- C Brian McCann
- RF Alfonso Soriano
- 2B Yangervis Solarte
- 3B Kelly Johnson.
- LF Zoilo Almonte
RHP Hiroki Kuroda
It’s a gorgeous day in New York. Couldn’t ask for better doubleheader weather. Game One is scheduled to begin a little after 1pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and MLB Network nationally, depending on where you live. Enjoy the game.
Update (4:28pm): The Yankees took the first game of the doubleheader earlier today by the score of 4-3. It seems unlikely Adam Warren (pitched each of the last two days) and David Robertson (four-out save in Game One) will be available in Game Two, but the rest of the bullpen should be good to go. Here is the Pirates lineup and here is the Yankees lineup:
- CF Brett Gardner
- 2B Brian Roberts
- DH Mark Teixeira
- 1B Kelly Johnson
- 3B Yangervis Solarte
- LF Zoilo Almonte
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- C John Ryan Murphy
- SS Brendan Ryan
LHP Vidal Nuno
There are a few more clouds in the sky right now than there were earlier today, the weather will be fine for the game. First pitch is tentatively scheduled for 4:35pm ET. You can watch on YES. Enjoy, again.
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