Yankees Series Game 2 Preview: Featuring the Best of Girardi Jokes
/You guys are never going to believe this, but guess what is in the forecast in New York for tonight?
Rain!
Hooray, get your rain delay theater entertainment ready to go, or I guess just be prepared for them to play through it, or even for Banister and Girardi to wrestle in the mud behind home plate. There is so much potential for this one.
If this one is played, then we will be treated to another edition of Ace Off Face Off, as Cole Hamels faces CC Sabathia 2.0 in the battle potential All Star lefties. By the way, that's not a misprint; CC Sabathia is once again the ace of this New York Yankees pitching staff, bringing a 2.71 ERA and 3.48 FIP into this game in the Bronx.
You may be asking "how is CC Sabathia good again? Is this 2008?" and I would say that is a fair question. But much like other questions such as why the Rangers cannot hit Jared Weaver, why did Ken Giles decide to give the Rangers billboard material, why do people insist on doing the wave, and how am I still allowed to write on this website; some things will remain eternal mysteries.
I have watched two of CC's starts this year and I have no idea. His velocity is down and he changes speeds well, but nothing looked good enough to be lights out, yet the results are there. His K/9 is the third lowest of his career, and he is walking a ton of people, but inducing lots of groundballs while keeping the fly balls in the park.
To counter Sabathia's left handedness, the Rangers are doing with a heavily right handed lineup, giving Mazara and Moreland the night off. Here is the way Texas will line them up this evening:
1- Choo RF
2- Desmond CF
3- Beltre 3B
4- Fielder DH
5- Rua LF
6- Odor 2B
7- Andrus SS
8- Profar 1B
9- Wilson C
Well......would you look at that? Profar scratches the starting lineup for only the 4th time in the last 12 games. I like the look of this lineup for the most part, and I am perfectly ok with Nomar getting a day of rest, even though he looked much better at the plate last night. It's nice to see Profar back in there, but it would be nice to see him get a few more starts and even give Beltre a few more days off here and there, because even though we realize he is not human, he is getting to be an old version of whatever he is and those hamstrings will be very important come October.
In case there is a delay this evening, the Rangers fanbase should be considered armed and dangerous following last night's full on barrage of Joe Girardi facts as posted onto the Twitter machine. Here are some of my favorites from last night:
"Joe Girardi once asked his son's teacher to cancel an exam after he answered the first two questions completely wrong." - @Sunspots1
"Joe Girardi was on OJs jury" - @BYUArlingtonTN
"Joe Girardi still has an AOL email account"- @BottomOfDeOrder
"(girardi opens facebook) Click here to follow Nickelback (looks around nervously)(he's alone) "hell yeah", he whispers (clicks follow)" - @taddmike
"Joe Girardi stood outside movie theaters in 1999 telling people "Bruce Willis is a ghost! He's dead the whole movie"- @The_Kingsley
"I hope Joe Girardi charges his phone through the night wakes up and finds out it didn't charge"- @qbjerryjones
"I hope Joe GIrardi forgets to take his phone out of his pocket before he jumps in the pool"- @Shippyfunsports
And on that note, on to tonight's game, where we may see more delays, more Girardi jokes, more runs scored, and hopefully another Rangers win, but no Kirby Yates, because he was just optioned to AAA following last night's three HBP performance.
Godspeed Kirby; we will always have last night.