All the home opener nonsense is over. The Yankees are through the celebratory portion of their schedule and can now, finally, begin the daily grind that is the regular season. They’ve had a bumpy start to the season, to be sure, but they won Thursday and tonight they have a chance to win back-to-game games for the first time this year.
“Had a little bump in the road on our opening homestand and getting hit obviously with injuries here early, but such is the nature of the big league season,” Aaron Boone said to George King on Thursday. “We just happened to get hit with a little bit early. We will be better for having gone through this and we will come storming out of this.”
Tonight J.A. Happ will make his second start of the season and his second start against the Orioles, and gosh, it sure it would be nice to see him keep the ball in the park. He’s allowed eight homers — eight! — in 15.1 innings this year between Spring Training and the regular season. Here are today’s lineups:
New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. 1B Greg Bird
5. C Gary Sanchez
6. SS Gleyber Torres
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. LF Mike Tauchman
9. 2B Tyler Wade
LHP J.A. Happ
Baltimore Orioles
1. 2B Jonathan Villar
2. RF Joey Rickard
3. 1B Trey Mancini
4. DH Renato Nunez
5. LF Dwight Smith Jr.
6. 3B Hanser Alberto
7. C Pedro Severino
8. SS Richie Martin
9. CF Cedric Mullins
RHP Dylan Bundy
After raining all day yesterday, it is partly cloudy and mild in Baltimore today. There’s no more rain in the forecast and that’s the most important thing. Today’s game will begin at 7:05pm ET and the YES Network will have the broadcast. Enjoy the game.
Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee, heart) will make a rehab start for High-A Tampa tomorrow, and as long as he makes it through okay, he will join the Yankees next weekend. He’s eligible to be activated off the injured list Saturday … Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing and is getting closer to throwing off a mound. He’s throwing at distances greater than 120 feet … Dellin Betances (shoulder) will face hitters Monday for the first time since being shut down. I’m assuming it’ll be live batting practice or a simulated game rather than a minor league rehab appearance … Aaron Hicks (back) is progressing with his throwing program and will begin swinging a bat in the coming days … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) is taking grounders. He has not swung a bat or thrown yet, which are the big tests.
Rotation Update: Domingo German starts tomorrow, then it’ll be Masahiro Tanaka, Jonathan Loaisiga, and James Paxton in Houston in that order. The Yankees flipped Tanaka and Loaisiga, though Tanaka will still make that start with one extra day of rest. Thursday’s an off-day, which sets Happ up to start Friday’s series opener against the White Sox and Sabathia to take German’s spot Saturday. Or it could be that German stays in the rotation and Loaisiga goes back to Triple-A. We’ll find out soon enough.
Misc. Notes: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees called up Gio Urshela and sent down Thairo Estrada. “(Urshela’s) a guy — with our roster situation right now — is going to play. He’ll play a lot of third base for us. Probably in there tomorrow. I would say he’ll be in there quite a bit while he’s here,” Aaron Boone said to Bryan Hoch. That presumably means LeMahieu goes to second base and Wade goes to the bench.