The New York Yankees are in Philadelphia today for a day-night doubleheader with Joe Girardi’s Phillies. The Yankees have the best record in baseball at 8-1. One of those wins was against the Phillies at Yankee Stadium, the first game of the four-game series. The second game of the series was postponed due to Tropical Storm Isaias. It was then decided that the remainder of the series would be played in Philadelphia with a doubleheader on Wednesday, and the final game on Thursday before the Yankees move on to Tampa.
It’s a bit unusual but neither starting pitcher for the New York Yankees has been announced as of early this morning. We do know who the Yankee players will be facing from the Phillies pitching staff. In game one at 4:05 pm, the Yankees will face Zack Wheeler the former New York Met. Wheeler will be tackling his second start of the season. He is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.29 with 4 strikeouts in his game against the Marlins on July 25. He went seven innings allowing one run in his outing. He has not pitched in eight days due to the Philly lockdown.
In the second game which will start 35 minutes after the first game is completed, the Yankees will face Aaron Nola in his second outing. He is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in his loss to the Marlins earlier. Nola is a right-hand pitcher who opened the season for the Phillies. In that game, he pitched a beauty through five innings with seven strikeouts but then imploded when he gave up four runs in the top of the sixth inning while recording only one out in the Phillies loss.
The New York Yankees havening not released today’s pitchers, there are likely probable pitchers. If the Yankees follow their normal rotation Jordan Montgomery will start one of the games and J.A. Happ will start the other game.
Montgomery in his one start for the Yankees this season is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.59, in his five and two-thirds innings against the Boston Red Sox, he allowed one run on five hits, and one walk while striking out four, over 5.2 innings, as he earned the win last Friday. The 27 year old lefty looked sharp to start out his 2020 season. His first outing was postponed when the Yankees decided to use an opener instead to keep Gerrit Cole’s rotation on track.
J.A. Happ in his first outing against the Baltimore Orioles did not fare as well, giving up four earned runs in just four innings. The Yankees went on to win the game 8-6, but Happ’s 9 ERA was disapointing to say the least. There are two problems with Happ, one is his fastball velocity is down, and the other, is that you never know what your going to get with Happ. You could get the 7-0 pitcher from 2018 or you might get the 12-8 pitcher from 2019.
With the New York Yankees being the number one baseball team so far this season, close eyes will be on both starting pitchers as they go into a difficult road trip that will feature two doublheaders. When the Yankees leave Philly they will take their first air flight of the season meeting up with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field this weekend.
This story will be updated later today, when more infomation is available. Stay with EmpireSportsMedia.com for all the latest baseball news.