Yankees hitters vs. Tampa Bay Rays starters

Jacob Faria and Matt Andriese

The back-end of the Rays’ rotation is up for grabs as of right now. That being said, with two rotation spots left, the jobs seem to be in the hands of Jacob Faria and Matt Andriese.

Both of these two pitchers are relatively young, Andriese the elder at 28 years old; Faria 24. Both have also been given starter duties in the past for the Rays. For these fundamental reasons, the Rays look to return these two into the rotation.

Andriese and Faria are not power pitchers; relying on slower pitches which break more than the average pitch.

Faria finished his rookie season last year with a 3.43 ERA in 86.2 innings pitched. Not bad for a rookie on limited appearances.

Andriese was not so fortunate this past season, posting a 4.50 ERA, his third season with an ERA above 4.00.

But these two pitchers can hold the Yankees’ offense at ease. Both Tampa Bay starters wield four-pitch arsenals, three of which are common between Andriese and Faria; fastball, changeup and curveball.

Starting with Andriese’s differing pitch, his cutter has decent movement, while supporting a .269 batting average against. The good news for the Rays here is that extra base hits rarely come off his cutter. But, against the Yankees’ exceptional hitters his cutter should not be that large of a threat; especially for Stanton and Ellsbury who both hit at least .400 against cutters last season.

Faria’s differing pitch, his slider, should be more of a problem for the Yanks who, as described in past editorials, hit very poorly against the pitch. Especially in the case of Faria, who has great control of his slider; the pitch being called for a ball or strike each around a third of the time. To add to that, his slider sports a low average, only enhancing the Yankees predicted struggles.

As for the other three pitches, well, they’re all somewhat successful. Each looking to give the Yankees a hassle to get on base to some extent.

With that being said, the Bombers should see the most success against each of these pitchers’ fastballs, having more movement and less velocity than most fastballs. The Yankees should see some balls exit into the stands off these fastballs.