Yanks Go Yard Radio Show Rewind: Yankees-Tigers Series Preview (4/20-4/23)

By Ricky Keeler | Apr 20, 2015

On this episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, brought to you by KNODA.com, I started off the show by recapping the New York Yankees (6-6) winning their first series of 2015 and in a sweep over the Tampa Bay Rays (6-7). New York’s offense, which had been inconsistent for the first nine games of the season, put up 19 runs over the course of the three games.

Masahiro Tanaka had an excellent start on Saturday, giving up only two hits over seven innings of work while striking out again. However, once again, the story is DH Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod had four hits in the series, including two home runs on Friday, to put him within two homers from tying Willie Mays on the all-time list.

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So far, the Bronx Bombers are 4-2 on this opening road trip of the season. However, the end of this road trip will begin a seven game stretch where New York will play the only two teams that have ten wins up to this point (Tigers and Mets). First up, it’s a four game series at Comerica Park against a team that is clicking on all cylinders on offense.

The Detroit Tigers (10-2) were not a very popular pick this season to win the AL Central as opposed to last season. However, this is a team that has just two losses this year, one to Gerrit Cole and the other to Chris Sale this past Saturday.

When you talk about Brad Ausmus’ club, the first thing that comes to mind is the offense. They are second in the majors in batting average (.305), tied for seventh in home runs (14), tied for fourth in RBI’s (62), and second in slugging percentage (.486).

J.D. Martinez has five home runs and new Tiger Yoenis Cespedes has three home runs himself. However, the main guy in Detroit is still 32-year-old first baseman, Miguel Cabrera. This season, Cabrera is hitting .426 with two home runs and ten RBI’s.

Detroit’s pitching staff has also been a surprise. Even without Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello, the additions of Alfredo Simon and former Yankee Shane Greene has the Tigers leading the American League in starters’ ERA (2.48) and second in baseball behind the St. Louis Cardinals (1.92).

To discuss this four game series between the Yankees and Tigers, I spoke with Matt Pelc, the editor of Motor City Bengals, to discuss his takeaways from Detroit’s first 12 games and he answers this question: Is the Tigers bullpen actually better without Joe Nathan, who is out due to a flexor strain in his elbow? Here are some of the other topics we discussed:

Is Detroit’s pitching staff the biggest surprise on their team thus far?
Joakim Soria doing a great job in that closer’s role
Pitching Matchups
Alfredo Simon (Monday’s Tigers starter) coming off eight shutout innings vs. the Pirates
CC Sabathia (Monday’s Yankees starter) and his problems with avoiding the crooked inning.
Scouting report on Kyle Lobstein (Tuesday’s Tigers starter)
Why Nathan Eovaldi (Tuesday’s starter) needs to give the Yankees more length when he starts
Mismatch on Wednesday between Adam Warren and David Price?
Price making a statement in the final year of his deal?
What stood out about Masahiro Tanaka (Thursday’s Yankees’ starter) in his last start.
The struggles of Anibal Sanchez (Thursday’s Tigers starter)
Tigers players to watch: Nick Castellanos and Jose Iglesias
Yankees players to watch: Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira
What has stood out about Shane Greene’s first three starts in Detroit?

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE YANKEES-TIGERS SERIES PREVIEW SHOW!!!

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