The Yankees won four of six games at home last week, but the homestand ended on a sour note with the two losses to the Orioles. That’s in the past now. The Yankees have a golden opportunity in front of them in Toronto this week. They can not only move closer to first place in the AL East, they can take it over outright. That would require a sweep (and the Orioles losing at least one game to the White Sox), but it’s doable. They swept the Jays in the Bronx just last week.
Either way, sweep or no sweep, this is an important series for the Yankees. Taking over the top spot in the division is the best case scenario but they could just as easily fall further back in the standings if the offense doesn’t wake up. The scored one run in their final 18 innings against the Orioles this weekend. They have to do a better of job of getting runners home when they get on base, and maybe even whack some extra base hits. Once upon a time this club had a man in scoring position even when the bases were empty. Here is the Blue Jays lineup and here is the Yankees lineup:
- LF Brett Gardner
- DH Carlos Beltran
- CF Jacoby Ellsbury
- 1B Mark Teixeira
- C Brian McCann
- 3B Kelly Johnson
- 2B Brian Roberts
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- SS Brendan Ryan
RHP Chase Whitley
It’s nice and sunny with very few clouds in Toronto this evening, so the Rogers Centre roof should be open. First pitch is scheduled for 7:07pm ET and you can watch on YES. Enjoy the game.
All-Star Voting Update: Derek Jeter continues to lead the All-Star fan voting at shortstop. He’s got a nice 400k vote lead with about a week to go in the voting. No other Yankees are in position to start the game. Here are the current AL results and here’s the ballot.
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