After a day off thanks to some rain, the New York Yankees begin their weekend with a Friday night matchup with the Oakland Athletics.
The New York Yankees continue their homestand on Friday night as they welcome the Oakland Athletics to Yankee Stadium for a three-game weekend series in the Bronx.
Joe Girardi, despite the rainout on Thursday, won’t skip struggling ace Masahiro Tanaka to give him extra rest. Instead, the 28-year-old will make his 10th start of the year coming off a disaster against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday in which he allowed six earned runs over three innings of work. Over his last two starts, the Tanaka has surrendered 24 earned runs over 12.1 innings (17.51 ERA).
Oakland was originally going with Kendall Graveman tonight, but he has been replaced by Sean Manaea.
The lefty has made seven starts this season and owns an ERA of 5.24 featuring the 12th-highest walk rate (4.46 percent) among starting pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched.
Manaea is 0-1 in his lone start against the Yankees in Oakland last season. He surrendered five runs on six hits including a two-run double by utility man Rob Refsnyder, who was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Thursday.
Lineups:
Player To Watch: Brett Gardner
Since April 29, the longest-tenured Yankee owns a slash line of .341/.402/.703 with nine home runs and an OPS of 1.105 in 23 games. Gardner is also tied with Michael Conforto with the second-highest wRC+ (200) in the month of May. Gardner may cool off eventually, but he enters play on Friday with a great chance to reach base for the 18th time in 21 games.
Matchup To Watch: Chris Carter vs. Sean Manaea
Chris Carter enters Friday with two career home runs off Manaea in three career at-bats vs the southpaw. In 54 career games against the Oakland A’s, the slugger has hit 12 home runs.
Bronx Bombers:
Yankees’ batters have homered in six consecutive games, which is good enough for their second-longest streak this season. Thier 69 total home runs through 44 games played is the fourth-most to begin a season, sitting behind 2011 (70), 2002 (70) and 2009 (72).
This Day In Yankees History:
On May 26, 2006, Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter collected the 2,000th hit of his legendary with an infield single off Scott Elarton of the Kansas City Royals in the third inning of an eventual 7-6 win.
Current AL East Standings:
[graphiq id=”hGxgAwFCbn7″ title=”AL East Standings” width=”550″ height=”563″ url=”https://sw.graphiq.com/w/hGxgAwFCbn7″ frozen=”true”]How To Watch:
- Time: 7:05 p.m. ET
- TV: WPIX, NBCSCA, MLB.TV
- Radio: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, 95.7 FM The Game
- Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY