Yankees In Line To Sweep The Series With Rays – Hell Yes!

The Yankees are in line to sweep their first series at home this afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays. And why not?

The Yankees have grabbed onto that all important thing called momentum taking their modest three-game winning streak to Yankee Stadium this afternoon as they attempt to sweep their series against the Tampa Bay Rays before the St. Louis Cardinals move into town for a weekend series.

The Yankees will send Luis Severino out to make his second start of the young season. The box score shows that Severino gave up five runs in his previous start, forcing Joe Girardi to go to a bullpen that already was taxed due to the ineffective starts by Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda.

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But to be fair, Severino made one bad pitch to Manny Machado, who hit the ball out for a three-run home run. Before that, though, Severino had struck Machado out twice, both times with nasty sliders. As happens so often, though, great hitters don’t miss that one bad pitch you make.

Still, it will be incumbent on Severino to provide his team with innings as a follow up on the start made yesterday by Jordan Montgomery in his major league debut. While effective, Montgomery did not finish the fifth inning causing the need for a string of relievers to finish out the game.

Yankees Offense Is Rolling

The Yankees offense is on a roll and is poised to score runs today with Aaron Judge leading the way, having raised his batting average now to .308 while adding his third home run of the season yesterday.

A rejuvenated Chase Headley (.393) and Starlin Castro (.333) have also been keys to the team’s offense. It’s possible that Brett Gardner will miss today’s game, although no announcement has been made as yet. Gardner went down following a horrific collision at first base yesterday. Concussion tests proved negative, but Girardi may decide to move Aaron Hicks in for a start just in case.

 Cardinals Are Next In Line

Following today’s game, the St. Louis Cardinals visit the Stadium for a three-game weekend set. The Yankees rotation sends Tanaka, who will be pitching with a planned extra days rest, followed by CC Sabathia on Saturday and Michael Pineda, who will be looking to put two good starts together on Sunday.

The Cardinals are off to a rough start in a division that the Chicago Cubs figure to walk away with. The team is waiting to see what they’ll get out of Adam Wainwright this year and will be pinning their hopes on a wild card spot.

Yankees: Why A Six-Man Rotation Makes Perfect Sense

The Yankees have an opportunity to fix the leaks in the rotation by moving to a sixth starter that would give extra rest to Tanaka and Sabathia.

But as they say, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. There’s a game on the Yankees schedule today, and it’s one of those games that can keep the line moving – or not. A credible performance today from Severino will ease the anxiety not only about him but the entire staff as well.