The Yankees cruised to a victory in the first half of today’s doubleheader, riding a shutout performance from their ace and some early dingers from the lineup. Now they’ll head back out looking to pickup an important second victory, one that could help propel them out of the bottom of the playoff race.
To get there, they’ll need a strong outing from Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka has been slowly building up his pitch count, and he’s starting to hit some consistency getting deeper into games. In his last three starts, Tanaka has gone at least five innings and allowed two or less earned runs (he was charged with two unearned runs in his last start.) Five innings isn’t a lot, but in a seven-inning game the Yankees can easily manage with that, especially after Gerrit Cole saved the bullpen from any earlier usage.
On the other side, Keegan Akin will go for the Orioles. Akin is a 25-year-old rookie making his fifth appearance and just his third start of the season. His last outing was a precursor of this meeting, and Akin won the matchup before. He pitched 5.1 shutout innings, allowing three hits and walking four while striking out eight. The Yankees will need to find more timely success against Akin this time around to get Tanaka the win, something they’ve been frustratingly bad at doing in his starts so far.
Here are your lineups for tonight’s action:
Ready to go with Masa for Game 2.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 11, 2020
Presented by @WeVisitMexico pic.twitter.com/pejy3tGW97
Orioles Game 2 lineup, @ NYY:
— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) September 11, 2020
Mullins CF
Iglesias SS
Stewart RF
Mountcastle LF
Ruiz 3B
Nunez DH
Alberto 2B
Davis 1B
Sisco C
Akin LHP
First pitch is scheduled for 6:55 p.m. EST, and you can catch it live on YES locally or on MLB.tv for you out-of-market folk. You can also listen to the broadcast on WFAN or WADO.