New York Yankees

After an absolutely dreadful showing in Toronto, the New York Yankees will be in Detroit for a make-up date with the Tigers.

  • New York Yankees (24-28)
  • Detroit Tigers (25-27)
  • American League, 7:40 pm ET, YES Network
  • Comerica Park, Detroit, MI

Inconsistency. That has become the identity of the New York Yankees through two months of the 2016 campaign. A miserable, lifeless, brutal offensive performance in Toronto had them outscored 15-3 in a painstaking sweep.

After taking two of three in Tampa this past weekend, the Yankees envisioned heading into a make-up matchup with Detroit with momentum to be rode into Baltimore. Instead, they are attempting to salvage what has become an unpromising road trip.

The match-up tonight in Detroit is a single game stop based off a postponement. On April 10th, the Yankees and Tigers were set to face off in a rubber game on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. The game was called due to inclement weather in the area, the series ended in an even draw, and the teams will look to pick up where they left off this evening.

Tasked with halting this three-game losing streak is a guy who is not only trying to right the team’s ship. Michael Pineda (2-6, 6.92 ERA) is attempting to right his own ship. Pineda possesses the lowest earned run average among qualified starting pitchers in major league baseball, is coming off a start in which he got tagged for six earned runs over three and two-thirds innings at Tropicana Field, and is 1-5 with a 7.68 ERA in his last seven starts.

Over that seven start interval, he has allowed 53 hits over just 36 1/3 innings pitched. Not your prototypical number two. It may not be admitted by management, but Pineda could very well be pitching for his job.

Opposing Pineda on the Comerica Park rubber will be 25-year-old southpaw Matt Boyd. In two games, one start, for the Tigers this season, Boyd has pitched to a 2.79 ERA while striking out nine in nine and two-thirds innings.

Having a lefty in opposition has not been a great sight for the Yankees this year. In 19 games against left-handed starters, the offense has slashed merely .229/.288/.335 and struck out 144 times.

Here is how the two clubs will line it up for tonight’s contest:

McCann gets the evening off with Romine behind the plate, Gardner and his struggling bat are on the bench, Refsnyder gets a start at second, and Castro slides over to his old position in tonight’s ballgame.

What happened last night?

Masahiro Tanaka did not have his plus-stuff, but he battled like a true ace. The right-hander gave the Yanks six strong innings, allowing only one earned run. However, the offense was dismal yet again.

A combination of Kirby Yates and Nick Goody followed Tanaka and surrendered five combined additional runs.

Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and Brian McCann went a combined 1-11 as the Blue Jays completed the sweep behind six and two-thirds shutout innings from Aaron Sanchez. 7-0 was the final from Rogers Centre.

Power Outage

The struggles of the middle of the order, primarily featuring Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, have led to a downturn in power production for the unit as a whole.

A few stats that may give you an idea of how vital these guys are to the team’s success:

Last year #Yankees hit 212 HR, 97 came w/ men on base.
This year on pace for 162 HR, 46 w/ men on base.

This is where all the runs went.

All of the action will commence with a first pitch of 7:40 pm ET from Detroit as the Yankees look to get a timely win before heading to Baltimore for a big AL East series. The game can be seen on the YES Network and heard on 660 WFAN/101.9 FM.

NEXT: The Toronto Blue Jays Have Become The New York Yankees’ Daddy

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