Last night the New York Yankees had a dry run on what appears to be the Yankee lineup for Opening Day. This Thursday, July 23, the Yankees will travel to the nation’s capital for the first day of American Baseball after a very long delay due to the coronavirus. After the Yankees play, the Los Angels Dodgers will play the San Francisco Giants in a late-night game. The rest of MLB will have their opening day on Friday.
On this historic start of baseball, the New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole will face off against the World Champion Washington Nationals Max Scherzer, if everything goes according to schedule. It looks like the Yankees have their lineup set, according to manager Aaron Boone.
This is what the lineup will look like:Â Luke Voit will start at first base, the still getting stronger DJ LeMahieu will be at second base. Although he hasn’t had a full summer camp, he has played in the exhibition games. As expected Gio Urshela will start at the hot corner, with Gleyber Torres as shortstop.
In the outfield, right will be covered by the recovered Aaron Judge. Judge has played in several intrasquad games and all three of the exhibition games showing that he is at full power with three home runs. Aaron Hicks has fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and will be in the center, with the veteran Brett Gardner in left field. Giancarlo Stanton will be the DH.
Gerrit Cole will be on the mound for his first regular-season game since being acquired by the Yankees back in December. Catching will be Gary Sanchez, according to manager Aaron Boone who said: “there’s a good chance” this will be the #Yankees’ Opening Day lineup. This is the lineup the Yankees used in their tie game last night.
The game on Thursday evening should be quite interesting for Yankee fans that have waited so long for this first day of real baseball. Gerrit Cole and all of the rotation have pitched well in summer camp, and although the progress of the pitchers seemed to be well ahead of the hitters, the Yankee hitting has come alive in the exhibition games.
If you cared to be an optimist, you would say the Yankees have shown an incredible burst of power in these exhibition games; if you choose the pessimistic route, you could say there really hasn’t been any small ball action in the games. Home runs have kept the Yankees from losing any of the games. Clint Frazier, Gary Sanchez, Luke Voit, and Giancarlo Stanton have all hit home runs.
Slugger Aaron Judge hit three homers in the games, and last night Mike Ford prevented a loss by a monster blast at the bottom of the ninth inning at the Stadium. All tolled the Yankees sent eight long balls into the stands driving in seventeen runs across the three exhibition games.
The New York Yankees/Washington Nationals Opening day game at 7 pm, Thursday will be broadcast by ESPN, with former Yankee Alex Rodriguez in the booth. The YES Network will have pre and post-game coverage.