There’s a good chance that Tampa actually is a better team than the Yankees but I’m not ready to accept that yet because I enjoy having my own little delusions. The two big things here are: BJ Upton is coming back (nooo) and Mark Teixeira might miss some more games (noooooooooo).
In any case, here are the matchups:
Monday, April 13
Chien-Ming Wang (0-1, 17.18ERA) vs Scott Kazmir (1-0, 1.50 ERA)
I love early season ERAs. Just look at them. One is horrifying and the other is beautiful. Neither will last. Wang does worse on the road than he does at home, especially on turf given his groundball nature. Kazmir can be very very good–acelike, even–but often uses too many pitches and can get pushed out of games after the 5th. With Teix’s wrist hurting when he bats righty (meaning he won’t play), this game is probably a wash.
Tuesday, April 14
AJ Burnett (1-0, 3.38 ERA) vs Matt Garza (1-0 1.29 ERA)
The Twins shipped Matt Garza off to Tampa because they were sick of his once a game baby hissy fits. This is unfortunate for them because he is a very high quality pitcher. AJ Burnett is who he is, and some of that is being inconsistent. The Yankees will need good Burnett to show up, and for Garza’s one bad inning to be pretty bad to take this game.
Wednesday, April 15
Andy Pettitte (1-0, 1.29ERA) vs Andy Sonnanstine (0-1, 9.64ERA)
Two solid #4 pitchers, here. Sonnanstine broke through last year, he doesn’t have anything overpowering in his pitch repretoire but doesn’t walk anyone (a useful skill I wish could be passed onto AJ Burnett). If not-horrible Andy shows up, this has a chance to be a very close exciting game for Jose Veras to blow/turn into a blowout.
