After a victorious homestand for the New York Yankees, they will travel to square off against the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first of three in Phoenix.
- New York Yankees (16-20)
- Arizona Diamondbacks (17-23)
- Interleague, 9:40 PM ET, YES Network
- Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
By Christian Kouroupakis
The New York Yankees entered their previous homestand in an offensive depression while sitting in the basement of the American League East.
Something clicked, however, and they were able to win a series against the Boston Red Sox, defending world champion Royals, and the first place Chicago White Sox. The best part? The Bombers averaged 4.8 runs per game after averaging merely 2.57 in the previous 21 games.
The Diamondbacks, on the other hand, have seen better times. The Yankees are the second team to come pass through Chase Field after the San Francisco Giants showed the D-Backs that home field certainly wasn’t an advantage.
Arizona lost Sunday’s contest 2-1 and have scored seven runs en route to a four-game sweep by the Giants thanks in part to being 4 for 31 with runners in scoring position. Arizona has lost seven straight at the “friendly” confines of Chase Field home and is 5-16 overall there.
New York will send rookie Chad Green to the hill, who’s filling in for the injured Luis Severino. Green will be making his major league debut and has posted a 1.22 ERA in seven starts at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season.
Opposing him will be Robbie Ray. Ray is 1-2 on the year with a 4.84 ERA and his lone win came back on April 19 against the San Francisco Giants. He has yet to have a start against the Yankees but is 2-2 in six interleague starts.
Offensively for the home team, they have Paul Goldschmidt who has been a one-man wrecking crew. He already has seven homers this year and has a .385 batting average with a home run in three games against the Yankees.
Tonight, keep an eye out for Didi Gregorius who spent two seasons in Arizona and will be facing his former team tonight. He has a career .218/.301/.337 slash line at Chase Field.
Chase Headley has also put his slump behind him and cranked a go-ahead pinch-hit double in the seventh inning of Sunday’s victory. He maintained a .333 batting average on the 10-game homestand and has seen his average hit the Mendoza line (was previously .151).
The D-Backs better hope to get to the Yankees early because if there’s a tight-knit game entering the late stages of the contest, we all know who has the advantage there.
Dellin Betances,Andrew Miller, and Aroldis Chapman put the “three-headed monster” to action last week and even took home MLB.com’s bullpen of the week award.
Overall this week, the Yankees ‘pen struck out 29 batters while allowing only 17 hits and five earned runs across 28.1 innings of work. The most dominating performance we saw was most likely Saturday afternoon, when “No-Run DMC” struck out eight of 11 batters faced in 3.1 innings pitched.
For those on the East coast, we’ll have a late night as first pitch will be on the YES Network at 9:40 PM ET.
Following his 400th home run, Carlos Beltran looks for encore performance in Arizona.https://t.co/TmrJaPpEtx pic.twitter.com/ZcZDWRXHLw
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 16, 2016
Alineación de hoy:
? KSUN 1400
? @FOXSPORTSAZ plus pic.twitter.com/hDOyDSCuvQ— Arizona Diamondbacks (@LosDbacks) May 16, 2016
Didi Gregorius on returning to Arizona tonight when the @Yankees take on the Diamondbacks. #YANKSonYEShttps://t.co/U20ozivHV8
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 16, 2016
