Yanks Go Yard Radio Show: Yankees-Padres Preview (7/1-7/3)

On last night’s episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, we looked ahead to the Yankees-Padres series beginning tonight:

During last night’s episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, I started off by talking about the New York Yankees (39-39) splitting their four game series against the Texas Rangers at Yankee Stadium. They capped off the series with two walk-off wins, including a dramatic six-run ninth inning on Wednesday night.

However, despite all the excitement, the Yankees lost a tough one in the series opener and you will hear in this episode why I blame manager Joe Girardi for that loss despite the long rain delay. New York ended up finishing 5-4 on their final homestand of the first half of the season.

Tonight, the Yankees begin a ten game roadtrip when they take on the San Diego Padres (33-46) at PETCO Park. While Andy Green’s team is in last place in the NL West, they come into tonight’s game winners of six of their last ten games.

This past month, the Padres offense was third in the National League in runs scored (145), tied for sixth in home runs (34), and fourth in batting average (.274). Their best player on offense has been first baseman Wil Myers (.284, 18 home runs, 55 RBI’s). The 25-year-old hit .327 in June with 11 home runs, 33 RBI’s, and had a .429 on-base percentage.

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While the offense performed well, the Padres have had issues with their starting pitching. In June, their team ERA of 5.17 was tied with the Rockies for the second highest in the NL. Despite the success of Drew Pomeranz (7-7, 2.76 ERA), San Diego hasn’t had much else in the rotation and Tyson Ross has been out since Opening Day with a shoulder injury.

The Padres did make a trade yesterday involving one of their relievers as they traded closer Fernando Rodney to the Marlins for minor league pitcher Chris Paddack. Rodney was 17-for-17 in saves and had an ERA of 0.31 while with San Diego.

Next: Judge Named IL Player Of The Month

To talk more about the Padres, my guest was Keenan Mrozek, one of the staff writers for Friars On Base. Keenan gave his thoughts on the Rodney and James Shields trades as well as the pressure that is on general manager A.J. Preller. Here are the other topics we discussed:

• Thoughts on the Padres season so far
• Myers’ breakout season in 2016
• Pitching Matchup Breakdown
• Colin Rea (tonight’s Padres starter) has only one win since May 11
• Nathan Eovaldi (tonight’s Yankees starter) has allowed ten home runs in his last five starts
• What has been behind the success of Pomeranz (tomorrow’s Padres starter?
• Ivan Nova (tomorrow’s Yankees starter) finished June with a 7.52 ERA
• Andrew Cashner making his return to the Padres rotation on Sunday
• Chad Green (Sunday’s Yankees starter) making his second MLB start
• Yankees hitters to watch: Didi Gregorius and Chase Headley
• Padres hitters to watch: Alex Dickerson and Travis Jankowski
• Is Matt Kemp the next Padre to be moved?
• Headley makes his return to San Diego

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