New York Yankees News: Bryan Mitchell to Start Tonight
Tonight the New York Yankees will hand Bryan Mitchell the ball (0-0, 2.89) for his first start in 2015 and second of his major league career. The 24-year old right-hander was recalled Thursday from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was 5-5 with a 3.12 ERA in 15 starts. He has made six relief appearances this season up in the big leagues, striking out nine over 9 1/3 innings.
Originally Mitchell was supposed to start Thursday’s game in Texas when Michael Pineda was placed on the DL, but skipper Joe Girardi elected to push CC Sabathia up a day to start instead.
So what can we expect from Bryan Mitchell tonight?
While he doesn’t have overpowering stuff, he does have a pretty decent ground ball percentage of 48.1 out of the Yankees bullpen. If these stats carry over into starting pitching, he should fair well against a Chicago White Sox lineup that’s yet to see Mitchell pitch at all so far in his young career.
Also, if the Yankees continue to dominate from the offensive side of the ball and can get Bryan Mitchell a few runs early, he should be in good shape. Mitchell owns a 54.6 LOB% (left on base percentage) and an 8.68 K/9 ratio out of the Yankees pen.
I think the biggest issue Bryan Mitchell will have tonight is stamina. His last start came on July 25th in a win for the RailRiders over the Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit), so he will be coming off seven days rest, but the deepest he’s ever pitched into a AAA start was the eighth inning, and that only happened once. Outside of a few games in which he pitched 7.0 strong innings, Mitchell often maxes out after 5.0 innings pitched.
Fortunately for the Yankees, they only needed to use Adam Warren and Nick Goody out of the bullpen last night after Nathan Eovaldi pitched 5.2 innings, so Chasen Shreve, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller are locked in and ready to go if Bryan Mitchell can’t pitch deep into the ball game.
Also, being that Mitchell’s first career start came in 2014 and was a loss to the Baltimore Orioles, he’s looking to get his first official win as a major league starter.
Let’s see what happens!
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