Let's get this out of the way right now.
Yankees! New York! Mariano Rivera! Joe Girardi! Larry Rothschild! 27 World Championships! ESPN! Babe Ruth! Called shot! Joe DiMaggio! Mickey Mantle! New York! NEW YORK! Derek Jeter's quest for 3,000!
Oops. That last one, of course, won't happen, because Jeter is on the DL. Unfortunately for the Cubs, that was what they were hyping for ticket sales for this series on billboards all over the Chicago area last winter:
Starlin Castro is, of course, having a fine season and coming off one of his better games yesterday (3-for-3 with a pair of walks). It would have been fun to watch Jeter get hit No. 3,000 this weekend. Instead, I'll settle for the Cubs winning the series -- and don't say it isn't possible, because the Cubs did just take three of four from a pretty good Brewers team.
Cubs lineup:
Fukudome RF, Castro SS, DeWitt 2B, Ramirez 3B, Peña 1B, Soriano LF, Campana CF, Hill C, Davis P
Yankees lineup:
Swisher rf, Granderson cf, Teixeira 1b, Rodriguez 3b, Cano 2b, Martin c, Nunez ss, Gardner lf, Garcia p
| Today's Starting Pitchers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Freddy Garcia, not-so-lovingly nicknamed "Sweaty Freddy", is quite familiar with the Cubs and Wrigley Field. He also made some not-very-complimentary comments about the Cubs during the 2010 SoxFest (video is NSFW!). Pitching-wise against the Cubs, he has been very good -- 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA in six career starts, going all the way back to 2002 when he was with the Mariners. Only one of those starts was at Wrigley Field, in 2005. The current Cub who has faced him most is Carlos Pena, and Pena has not done well: .111 (4-for-36) with 10 strikeouts. Aramis Ramirez is 6-for-15 (.400) with a HR.
Doug Davis last faced the Yankees on June 14, 2007 in interleague play while he was with the Diamondbacks. Overall he has a 3-2 record against them, but with a 6.28 ERA. He's 0-5 this year. However, current Yankees are hitting just .213 against him (16-for-75) with just one home run (by Jorge Posada, who is likely limited to PH duties this weekend). Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago, the YES Network, and also (outside the Chicago and New York areas) on MLB Network. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Yankees site Pinstripe Alley.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 1:15 pm CDT and the overflow threads will post at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.