Ivan Nova, who perhaps had the best Yankee start until Kuroda's masterpiece of Friday afternoon, will get the start tonight against Jerome Williams and the Angels. The Yankees need from Nova exactly what he gave them last week in Baltimore, and maybe even a little more than that. The youngster is 1-1 against the Angels in his career, with both of his outings yielding 3 runs in 6 innings. That's not bad, but the Yankees would like more from him.
The Yankees bullpen is well rested. The only guy who I imagine will not be available tonight is David Phelps, after throwing 78 pitches in 5.1 innings of relief yesterday. If Nova does his job and goes six or seven strong innings tonight, Girardi will go to a rested Robertson and Mariano.
The Yankees lineup will probably be the usual one tonight, with Cano batting third and A-Rod in the cleanup spot. The core of the lineup still has not been producing on a daily bases. I am not at all worried because they will all find their swings. I do still worry about Teixeira however, because of a down year in batting average last year and another April slump this year. The slugger had no home runs in spring training and he is still looking for his first of the regular season 9 games in.
Jerome Williams has never faced the Yankees, but has faced Andruw Jones, Raul Ibanez, and Eric Chavez. None of the three have particularly good numbers against Williams, but he won't be facing two of the guys who have the most AB's against him.
No comments:
Post a Comment