Yankees Preview: Week of April 21st

Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees make a trip to Boston for the first time this year as the Red Sox and Yanks will battle it out in a mid-week series at Fenway. The Yankees then come back home for a weekend series against the Angels, the first time the Yanks play them this year. It should be two very entertaining series this week.                         

                                             Probable Pitching Match-ups

       Yankees                                              @                                         Red Sox

Masahiro Tanaka             Tuesday, April 22nd:  7:10 pm              Jon Lester

 Michael Pineda             Wednesday, April 23rd: 7:10 pm           John Lackey

  C.C. Sabathia                 Thursday, April 24th: 7:10pm             Felix Doubront

Who’s Hot?: Not too many hot hitters in the Red Sox lineup the last week or so. However, the heart of the team hasn’t been to shabby. Dustin Pedroia had been hitting roughly .300 with an OPS over .800 in his last seven games. Mike Napoli has been swinging a decent bat as well hitting over .300 with a home run. Napoli started a little sluggish this year but has since really picked it up.

Who’s Not?: David Ortiz and Grady Sizemore have been ice cold in their lass seven games. Neither have hit for much power either. As of Saturday night, they have combined to hit under .200 with one home run and four RBI. It should be interesting to see if they pick it up in time for the series with the Yankees.

                                                  *What To Watch For*

Masahiro Tanaka will make his first career start against the Red Sox in Fenway. It should be a very fun game to watch. As for the second game of the series, Michael Pineda gets the start. Of course no one has much of a history against Pineda being his second season pitching in the Majors. However, David Ortiz does have two hits in five at-bats while Daniel Nava is just 1-for-3 , with that hit being a home run. Other than that, literally no one else has good numbers against Pineda in those small sample sizes.

Sabathia will start the last game in Boston. David Ross and Dustin Pedroia hit Sabathia well. Ross is 7-for-21 or .333 with two homers and three RBI against the lefty. Pedroia’s numbers are not as impressive, but they still are very good. The second baseman is 16-for-57 (.281) with just three RBI to show for it.

The big bat of David Ortiz isn’t so big against Sabathia. Ortiz is just 15-for-63 against Big Papi which is a .238 average to go with two home runs and six RBI. Sabathia did pitch well last time against the Sox before giving it up. He hopes to be dominant on Thursday.

                                      Probable Pitching Match-ups

      Angels                                           @                                          Yankees

   C.J. Wilson                  Friday, April 25th: 7:05 pm               Hiroki Kuroda

Hector Santiago         Saturday, April 26th: 1:05  pm                    TBA

Garrett Richards          Sunday, April 27th: 8:05 pm           Masahiro Tanaka

Who’s Hot?: Albert Pujols and Mike Trout might not only be the hottest hitters on the Angels. but may be the hottest hitters on the planet. Mike Trout is hitting over .350 with two homers and seven RBI. Pujols on the other hand is hitting well over .300 with four homers and eight RBI over the past week. In that span, the pair have an OPS above 1.100.

Who’s Not?:  J.B. Shuck and Raul Ibanez have really been slacking the past seven days. Shuck is hitting under .200 during this time with just one home run. Ibanez is doing even worse. He’s hitting under .100 with just one home run. Besides Pujols and Trout, there haven’t been too many Angels’ hitters hitting the cover off the ball which is why the team overall has not been too impressive.

                                                  *What To Watch For*

Hiroki Kuroda is starting the first game against the Angels in Yankee Stadium. Only two guys have decent numbers against Kuroda. They are Trout who is 3-for-7 (.429) and Ian Stewart who is 6-for-13 (.462). Everyone else’s numbers aren’t too great especially Erick Aybar and Raul Ibanez. Aybar is 4-for-18 (.222) against the 39-year-old and Ibanez is 2-for-14 (.143).

Ivan Nova was supposed to start the second game of the series. However, he was placed on the DL Sunday morning with a partial tear of his UCL in his right elbow. An injury that could probably keep him shelved for the rest of the season.  His spot will likely be given to Adam Warren or David Phelps.

Masahiro Tanaka will start the final game in the Bronx. It’s his first career start against the against Angels. Keep an eye out to see how Tanaka does against guys like Trout and Pujols. Hamilton won’t get a chance to face the Japanese ace as he is still on the disabled list. It’ll be an entertaining week  for the Bombers.