Ivan Nova takes the hill to prove he belongs in the rotation against Rick VandenHurk of the Orioles. Girardi wants to see Nova be more efficient: he threw 62 pitches in three innings last time out and can get up 80 (or five innings) tonight.
We'll see the Yankees "A" lineup for the first time, which should be some combination of: Gardy, Jeets, Tex, A-Rod, Cano, Swish, Posada, Grandy and Martin.
Back-ups expected to play include Montero, Andruw, Chavez, Nunez, Pena, Mo, Soriano and D-Rob.
Gametime is 7 p.m. with coverage on YES.
FYI, you should forget about Man-Ban having any kind of real impact this year. BPro broke it down -
"He has everything he needs to succeed in the big leagues except the ability to handle the workload," said one AL executive. "They need to stretch him out, get him 100 safe innings, and medical people will tell you that if you jump his innings in a big-league environment, that would be an even bigger risk."
That means that even if the Yankees opened the year with Banuelos in their rotation, they'd almost certainly be unable to finish it with him, or have him available for the all-important post-season. One National League executive saw breaking camp with Banuelos as a potential public-relations problem no matter how he pitched. "If he fails, then they're losing games and they've rushed him, and it could hurt him long-term in terms of confidence," the exec explained. "But what if he starts off gangbusters and he's 9-2 in July, has pitched 100 innings and they're batting Boston in the American League East?" he asked. "Are they going to shut him down? How do you think that will go over with the fans and the New York press? I bet there was a part of Yankees brass that was hoping he got tagged on Monday so they could just treat him like a normal prospect."