Opening Day could not have gone any better for the Yankees after defeating the Blue Jays in impressive fashion. Now, they look to do the same in game two.
- New York Yankees (1-0)
- Toronto Blue Jays (0-1)
- American League, 7:07 p.m. ET, YES Network
- Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Yankees are coming fresh off a dominating victory against the Blue Jays on Opening Day on Thursday and will be looking to repeat their performance on Friday night.
Tonight, Masahiro Tanaka will take the mound for New York in his first start of the regular season in Toronto.
In 2017, Masahiro Tanaka did not pitch like the ace he had been in the previous few seasons. Through 30 starts, Tanaka went 13-12 while sporting a 4.74 ERA, but he did seem to rebound in the postseason with a few impressive outings.
Tanaka has had his fair share of success throughout his career against the Blue Jays. In 15 career starts, the right-hander is 9-4 with a 2.95 ERA.
On the Blue Jays side, Aaron Sanchez will be taking the mound and go up against the mighty New York lineup. Sanchez had an injury-plagued campaign in 2017, starting in only eight games.
Sanchez has 13 career games against the Yankees with only two of those being games which he started. He is 2-2 with a 2.40 ERA against the Bronx Bombers.
Lineups:
The lineups tonight in Toronto pic.twitter.com/oFdPLoR1R3
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) March 30, 2018
Player To Watch:
It’s difficult to give the player to watch to the same player two days in a row, but if we had to pick anybody it would surely be Giancarlo Stanton. It is just impossible to bet against him after his historic debut on Thursday.
Stanton became the first Yankees player since Roger Maris to homer two times on Opening Day, cementing himself in a pretty illustrious class on day one.
The reigning NL MVP has never faced Sanchez in his career, but don’t expect that to be an issue. He will be riding his wave of momentum right into this game and look to crush some more home runs.
Super Smash Brothers:
Heading into the season there was plenty of hype when it came to the fact that sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton would be batting next to each other in the same lineup. They have not disappointed so far.
We all know what Stanton did in his first game, slugging two home runs as well as hitting a rocket of a double, but Judge did not do too shabby himself. He was able to get his own double as well as a nice single to benefit his average.
Expect to see much more of this throughout the season of Judge and Stanton just feeding off each other’s momentum and slugging together in the Yankees lineup.