Yankees: NYY Drop New Stacked Lineup With Stephen Strasburg Ruled Out for Nats

DJ LeMahieu has returned to the New York Yankees starting lineup.

Here. We. Go. The New York Yankees are set to take on the Washington Nationals in DC on Saturday night for the second game of season-opening series and the Bombers will yet again have the upper hand after some late news.

For starters, DJ LeMahieu has returned to the starting lineup and will lead off with Tyler Wade returning to the bench. In another stroke of good news for the Yankees, Stephen Strasburg will not take the bump for the Nats after he was ruled out with a nerve issue in his hand.

It’ll be James Paxton vs Erick Fedde at Nationals Park tonight.

The Machine’s debut, baby!

This is the lineup manager Aaron Boone was hoping to deploy on Opening Night, but LeMahieu probably needed another day or two to get up to speed after missing the start of camp. He was held back because of a positive COVID-19 test.

As for the lineup, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton will remain in the same spot as they were Thursday night, but just about everyone else has been moved. Aaron Hicks will get some padding batting behind Stanton while Gary Sanchez will get bumped after his disappointing evening at the plate on Thursday (he went 0-for-3 in six innings).

Sadly for the Nats, they can’t catch a break. Juan Soto was ruled out the first game after testing positive for COVID-19 (though he’s expected to return today), and now they’ll be without Strasburg, who was expected to get the team back on track and give the lefty Paxton a daunting battle.

Instead, it’ll be Fedde, who owns a career 5.39 ERA in 35 games (26 starts) taking on the Yankees’ death lineup. Best of luck to the 27-year-old, who will be welcomed into 2020 by The Machine.