Today the Yankees will continue on their road trip and head to Target Field to take on the Minnesota Twins. With both teams’ win percentages hovering just over the .500 mark, every game from here on out will have a significant impact on their chances of making the playoffs. Although neither of these offenses have scored too well since the All-Star break, the batters from these teams should be drooling with the matchups that they will be seeing tonight.
Luis Cessa will be on the hump for the Yanks tonight who is yet to record a win in his three starts for the club. In those starts, he has a combined 5.93 ERA, which is why he was held out of the rotation and put into the bullpen. It was most likely Girardi’s intentions to keep him there barring any unforeseen injuries. Well unfortunately for the Yankees, that is exactly what happened. With Michael Pineda getting Tommy John surgery, the Bronx Bombers were forced to call upon some of their less proven arms. Cessa gets a chance now to make his mark in the rotation, but he will have to improve on his numbers from his previous starts. This will be easier said than done as he now has to go into Minnesota, which has not been an easy task for too many pitchers this season.
Minnesota will be sending out Bartolo Colon to the mound to make his debut for the team, and to say he’s been bad this season would be a drastic understatement. Before being released by the Braves a couple of weeks ago, Colon lead the MLB in ERA and held an extremely unimpressive 2-8 record. These numbers are even more disappointing for the ex-Met as he is coming off of a 15-win season where he had a sub 3.50 ERA. Although it would be nice to say that there is some optimism in “Big Sexy’s” future, that would be somewhat unrealistic as he was still getting demolished after being sent down to triple A. In his one start in the minors, he let up 4 runs in just 3 2/3 innings. The Yankees bats have not been swinging the ball well as of late, but look for them to have a field day against a washed up pitcher in a hitter’s park.
This should be a fun one for the fans as there are expected to be an abundance in runs coming in from both sides. By the time October comes, these two teams could potentially be fighting for one of those final wild card spots, so this game could be critical in terms of which one of these teams is able to make it into the post season.
