With tonight’s spot start, Esmil Rogers will become the 12th different pitcher to start a game for the Yankees this season. They last used that many starting pitchers back in 2008, when they used 13 different starters because of injuries and also because they used September to see what they had in Ian Kennedy and Alfredo Aceves once they were out of the race. The Yankees used either eight or nine different starters every year from 2009-13. Here’s the list, if you’re interested.
Anyway, the Indians are in town to help wrap-up this homestand. They’ve kinda been hanging around the wildcard race these last few weeks — the Yankees are a half-game back of the Royals for the second wildcard spot and the Indians are 3.5 games back of the Yankees — so this series is pretty important for both teams. Unlike last year, when it felt like the Yankees had no business playing meaningful games in the second half, this team is definitely good enough to get to the postseason. They still have a lot of work to do though. Don’t let up after that big series win over the Tigers. Here is the Indians lineup and here is the Yankees lineup:
- LF Brett Gardner
- SS Derek Jeter
- CF Jacoby Ellsbury
- DH Carlos Beltran
- C Brian McCann
- 1B Chase Headley
- 2B Stephen Drew
- 3B Martin Prado
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
RHP Esmil Rogers
The weather in New York is pretty much perfect. Nice and sunny but not overwhelmingly hot or humid. Just a fantastic night for baseball. The game is scheduled to begin just after 7pm ET and you can watch on YES. Enjoy.
Injury Updates: Mark Teixeira (finger) is still sore and can’t grip a bat. He did not take batting practice today and Joe Girardi labeled him as day-to-day … Masahiro Tanaka (elbow) felt good after playing catch from 60-90 feet today. He’ll stretch it out to 120 feet tomorrow then rest on Sunday.
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