Game 51–Yankees at Cardinals

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

David Phelps takes the mound tonight in Busch Stadium for the Yankees against the St. Louis Cardinals.  It will be a homecoming game for the 27-year-old right-hander as he grew up about 20 minutes away from the stadium.  He will have an estimated 25 friends and family in attendance for the game.  He brings a 1-1 record and 3.18 ERA with him as he opposes Lance Lynn, who is 5-2 on the year with a 3.60 ERA.  Phelps will try and extend the impressive streak by Yankee starters of allowing three runs or less.  The streak is currently at 12 straight games

The Yankees will try and build on their terrific performance in extra innings yesterday, in which they rode a three-run, 12th inning to the win.  While the Yankees were outhit (10-7) in yesterday’s game, they were able to take advantage of walks and good base running, notably Jacoby Ellsbury‘s 12th inning steal of second, to edge out the win.

A few items to look for in today’s game:

• Teixeira’s Power: First baseman Mark Teixeira leads the Yankees with 9 HR and is tied for the team lead with 25 RBI (also Yangervis Solarte) despite only having played in 35 of the team’s 49 games thus far.  In the month of May, he has eight home runs, the St. Louis Cardinals as a team have nine.
• Professional Thieves: There are 18 active major leaguers with 250 or more career stolen bases.  Seven of them are in the Yankees’ organization (Ichiro Suzuki 475, Derek Jeter 349, Alex Rodriguez 322, Carlos Beltran 309, Alfonso Soriano 288, and Ellsbury 253).  Coming into tonight’s game, the Yankees are second in stolen base percentage this season, behind only the Oakland A’s.
• Soriano vs Lynn: Alfonso Soriano will get the start tonight in right field, batting sixth.  Over his career, he has 22 at-bats against the Cardinals starter Lance Lynn and has hit .364 with a home run in that span.