Game 107 Preview: Red Sox at Yankees
What a difference a month makes! The Sox had the Yankees in town right before the All Star break and were looking at being within 5 games of first place if they took 2 of 3 from the AL East leaders. Instead, they lost the series on Sunday afternoon and since then have been on a terrible downward spiral towards the bottom of the American League. Now, as the team tries to prep for next season, they will turn to one of their young pitching prospects, Henry Owens, to make his big league debut tonight in the Bronx.
Owens is ranked as the #19th overall prospect in the game according to MLB.com and the recently turned 23 year old will look to prove all the experts right that his stuff will be good enough in the majors. This season Owens has a 3-8 record but in 21 games started and over 120 innings pitched, he has an ERA of 3.16 to go along with 103 K's and a WHIP of 1.144. He'll be going up against the best lineup in baseball over the past 2 weeks. The Yankees have scored 94 runs in that time and as a team are hitting .305; leading the way is Mark Teixeira with 6 homers and having an incredible come back season.
The Yankees will have Masahiro Tanaka (7-4 3.80) on the mound tonight and will try to bounce back after taking the loss last week to the Rangers.
Here is tonight's Red Sox lineup:
Holt (2B)
Bogaerts (SS)
Ortiz (DH)
Ramirez (LF)
Sandoval (3B)
Napoli (1B)
De Aza (RF)
Swihart (C)
Bradley Jr (CF)
Quick Hits:
- In his last 22 games, Xander Bogaerts is hitting .371 with 13 doubles
- Yankees Shortstop Didi Gregorious is turning his season around lately, hitting .472 in his last 10 games with 13 RBIs
- Jackie Bradley Jr continues to be the replacement Centerfielder since Mookie Betts is out with a concussion, JBJ has 5 hits in 53 plate appearances this season
- Brett Gardner has 1 hit in his last 18 at bats
Have a question for Mike during the game or whenever a baseball discussion is going on, reach out via Twitter: @86flynn