Tonight is the most exciting Opening Day game for the New York Yankees in many years. Not only because we have waited so long for this day due to the coronavirus, but the Yankees will get to see the debut of pitching ace Gerrit Cole who the Yankees acquired during the offseason with a nine-year $324 million contract.
Tonight Cole who led the league with 326 strikeouts, will face off with World Champion Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer. The Yankees as a team have only seen Scherzer once and that was back in 2013 when he was an Arizona Diamondback. Scherzer held the Yankees to only one run in seven innings pitched. Scherzer now is one week away from turning 36 years old, but he too is a strikeout king, leading the NL with 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Scherzer will face a powerful Yankee lineup in tonight’s game. First up will be 2nd baseman DJ LeMahieu that has just come back from the coronavirus. LeMahieu was the Yankees MVP last year. Then he will have to face Aaron Judge who is coming back from a rib fracture. Scherzer will have his work cut out for him as he tries to navigate a possible home run in the first inning. Aaron Judge hit three home runs in just two games in exhibition. One of the runs was in his first at-bat.
Next in the lineup will be shortstop Gleyber Torres who hit 38 home runs last season. Giancarlo Stanton will follow him and will be the Yankee DH. Following him will be centerfielder Aaron Hicks and Gary Sanchez. Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, and Luke Voit all hit home runs in the last two exhibitions games. Should Mike Ford pinch hit for any of the Yankees, he too hit an out of the park home run.
Next up for Scherzer will be the first baseman, Luke Voit, Voit has had only one at-bat against Scherzer and it was a hit. It doesn’t get any easier for the hurler as he faces left fielder Brett Gardner, Gardner has a career batting average off Scherzer off .333. And finally anchoring the lineup is that man in the hot corner Gio Urshela. Urshela has never faced Scherzer.
Washington Nationals projected lineup
As of this morning, the Nationals have not released their lineup for tonight’s game. However, the most recent lineup should give us a good idea of what it might look like tonight.
Facing Cole at the start will be shortstop Trea Turner. Cole will have to be careful with Turner as he has a .400 batting average off him. Next is outfielder Adam Eaton, he has a .500 average off Cole. Following him is outfield Juan Soto, followed by Howie Kendrick who bats .333 against Cole. After that, the rest of the lineup has horrible records off Cole.
Rounding out the lineup, the five through nine hitters are, Eric Thames fourteen at-bats .143 off Cole, ex-Yankee Starlin Castro .125 off Cole, Carter Kieboom, Yan Gomes, and Victor Robles. The last three have never seen Gerrit Cole. Unless something goes horribly wrong with one of the starting pitchers, this game is set up to be a low scoring affair against these two strikeout pitchers.
The biggest question going into today’s game is if it will be played at all. The forecast for the Washington, D.C. area is for rain most of the day with scattered thunderstorms. At present, the game time possibility of rain is 50%, although some models show only showers between 6 and 10 pm which the teams can play through. Thunderstorms in the area will halt play but in this shortened season the umpires will be reluctant to postpone games. We can only hope the game can be played as tomorrow doesn’t look much better.
EmpireSportsMedia.com’s editor is projecting a Yankee 4-3 win. I am anticipating a soggy win by the Yankees but with a still lower score. But the best projections are just that, as anything can happen in a baseball game.