Good weekend? Good weekend. The Yankees swept the Orioles and thoroughly beat them down yesterday, so the flight to Houston was a good one. Things are going to get tougher now though. Three games against the Astros are on tap this week. It’s the first time this season the Yankees will play a legitimately good team.
“After a difficult homestand and to come in here and kind of bust out a little bit with the bats, obviously, and get some good pitching performances, that’s nice to see,” Aaron Boone told George King following yesterday’s game. The dingers and quality pitching performances might not be as easy to come by these next few days.
The Astros, as good as they are, have had an uneven start to the season (like the Yankees). In fact, they’ve only scored 33 runs in ten games thus far. Six times in those ten games they scored no more than three runs. Huh. Hopefully the offensive futility lasts at least another three days. Here are tonight’s lineups:
New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. C Gary Sanchez
5. SS Gleyber Torres
6. 1B Greg Bird
7. 2B DJ LeMahieu
8. LF Clint Frazier
9. 3B Gio Urshela
RHP Masahiro Tanaka
Houston Astros
1. CF George Springer
2. 2B Jose Altuve
3. 3B Alex Bregman
4. LF Michael Brantley
5. SS Carlos Correa
6. 1B Yuli Gurriel
7. RF Josh Reddick
8. DH Tyler White
9. C Robinson Chirinos
RHP Justin Verlander
Clear skies and a warm night in Houston. Nice enough weather that the Minute Maid Park roof might be open. Either way, first pitch is scheduled for 7:10pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network locally and ESPN nationally. Enjoy the game.
Injury Updates: In case you missed it earlier, Luis Severino (shoulder) is going back to New York for tests. He’s not progressing as much as expected with his throwing program … CC Sabathia (knee, heart) will indeed make his next start with the Yankees. They haven’t picked a set date yet, but Sabathia is eligible to be activated off the injured list Saturday.