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The New York Yankees take on the Washington Nationals tonight at 7:05 p.m. at Nationals Park. It is the second of a two game set, which the Yankees are fighting for a split in following an extra inning 8-6 loss yesterday.
The Yankees will have to take on the high-powered Nats without their star Jacoby Ellsbury, who was placed on the 15-day DL following a knee injury during an at bat last night. The Yankees recalled outfielder Slade Heathcott to fill the roster void. Heathcott is batting .280/.311/.353 in 36 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season.
Washington is, naturally, starting one of its five aces, Jordan Zimmermann. Surprisingly, the Yankees' Garrett Jones has fared well when facing the hard-throwing righthander, batting .267/.250/.600 in 16 plate appearances against. Zimmermann was masterful in his last outing, not giving up a run in his six innings of work. He left after throwing 91 pitches, but the nine runs of support from his teammates didn’t put much pressure on him to go deep in the game.
The Yankees will counter Zimmermann with clear mismatch Adam Warren. Despite earning the meaningless loss, Warren was solid in his last outing. He lasted seven innings, only throwing 94 pitches. He also struck out seven batters, only walking one, allowing seven hits and three earned runs throughout. The Pinstripes' pitcher will have to have his best stuff again to outduel his counterpart tonight.
Tonight's lineup
Yankees lineup at WAS: Gardner lf Beltran rf Teixeira 1b McCann c Headley 3b Drew 2b Young cf Gregorius ss Warren p
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) May 20, 2015