Game 74 Preview: Rockies at Yankees

If you like pitchers that throw hard and light up the radar guns, tonight is your kind of night. A.J. Burnett will take the hill for the Yankees, looking to get his team back to their winning ways. Opposing him will be Ubaldo Jimenez, a young right hander who routinely touches the upper-90s with his fastball.

The Yankees are 43-30, one game shy of their season high of 14 games over .500. They trail the Red Sox by just half a game in the AL East. In his last start, Burnett pitched exceptionally well. Despite only finishing 5.1 innings, Burnett struck out 8 and had an absolutely outstanding 10:1 GB/FB ratio.

The Rockies are 37-37, and sit four games back of the first place Diamondbacks. In his last start, Ubaldo was forced to leave after 5 innings due to a cramp in his right calf. With terrible weather in the Bronx, this may be something to keep an eye on.

Ubaldo throws six pitches. His four seam fastball and his two seam fastball both touch the upper 90s, and will sit between 93-96 mph. He also throws a sinker that will sit around 90 mph. His breaking pitches consist of a curveball and a slider, which average 77.3 and 83.3 mph, respectively. Finally, Ubaldo also throws a changeup in the 86 mph range. He mixes in all 6 pitches, with his curveball being the least used at 7.8%, and all of his other pitches used above 12%.

Despite his plus stuff, Ubaldo has not been the same pitcher this season as he was in 2010. He threw 25 quality starts last season, but has just 5 to his name in 2011.

Lineups, matchups and notes after the jump. 

Yankees Lineup:

Gardner, Granderson, Teixeira, Rodriguez, Cano, Swisher, Posada, Martin, Nunez

Rockies Lineup:

Gonzalez, Nelson, Helton, Tulowitzki, Giambi, Smith, Wiggington, Blackmon, Iannetta

Neither pitcher has faced many of the current players on the opposing teams, but here is Burnett vs. four Rockies and Ubaldo vs. five Yankees. For the record, Burnett will be making his fifth career start against the Rockies and Ubaldo is making his first start against the Yankees.

Notes from game previews around the web:

• The Yankees are 150-105 during interleague play, the best mark in baseball. 
• Buddy Carlyle was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace Jeff Marquez, who is on the D.L.
• Carlos Gonzalez has seen a nice increase in production since he began leading off.
• Jason Giambi is making his second trip to the new Yankee Stadium. His first one came in 2009 while he was a member of the A's.
• The last time Colorado was in the Bronx, the Yankees swept them back in 2004. Let's hope history repeats itself.

For even further analysis on tonight's game, here is a link to Baseball-Reference's game preview. Enjoy the game tonight, and for those of you who will stick around, look for the game thread at 6:45.