New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays: Masahiro Tanaka vs. Blake Snell

The Yankees have been rolling at home, sporting a perfect record in ten games at Yankee Stadium. The Bombers look to continue that success against a Rays team that gave them fits earlier this month at the Trop.

Masahiro Tanaka will make his fourth start of the season tonight. He owns a shiny 2.31 ERA (3.12 FIP) across 11.2 innings. Tanaka pitched against the Rays on August 7, when he tossed five shutdown innings with as many strikeouts. Another strong Tanaka start would go a long way for the team, because they don’t have the easiest matchup on the other side of the mound.

Blake Snell, 27, appears back in peak form, pitching to a 2.08 ERA (2.97 FIP) over 13 innings. Snell’s strikeout rate is way up (13.85 K/9), and he’s using his fastball-curveball mix to great effectiveness. The southpaw was razor-sharp against the Yankees a few weeks ago, striking out five in three innings before reaching his pitch count.

The Yankees have an extremely cool lineup tonight, with Luke Voit serving as the leadoff hitter! Gio Urshela is batting second! How ridiculously fun.

Here’s the Rays’ lineup:

Roster News:

Earlier today the Yankees signed Jordy Mercer to a minor-league contract and assigned him to the alternate site at Scranton. Mercer, 33, is a light-hitting shortstop, who owns a career .257/.315/.387 batting line with 64 home runs (88 wRC+). This seems like just a depth move, especially with the alternate sites allowed to expand their rosters. The club also moved Wynston Sawyer, a catcher formerly in the Twins’ system, to Scranton as well.

How to Watch:

First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM. You can watch on YES or ESPN, stream on MLB.tv, or follow along with WFAN/WADO on the radio. Go Yankees, go baseball!