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The Yankees head to Miami for a two-game set against the Miami Marlins before returning home to take on those same Marlins for two more games. You'll notice that same interleague theme is true of every team in MLB this week. How fun. New York managed to fight off a sweep at the hands of the Orioles with a win on Sunday to snap a three-game losing streak. Hopefully a new winning streak is on the horizon, which the team will need if they hope to stay in first place in the AL East. The Blue Jays are some kind of hot right now and may never lose again, and the Rays just aren't going away.
Masahiro Tanaka starts the first game of the series in Miami, opposing Tom Koehler on the mound. Tanaka has been very good since returning from the disabled list and will try to keep that going against MLB's home run leader, Giancarlo Stanton. Alex Rodriguez will likely not get a chance to hit home run 667 while they are in his home city of Miami thanks to National League rules insisting that a pitcher who probably can't muster a batting average that matches his weight take a turn to swing the bat. Carlos Beltran will probably also sit, Joe Girardi says, thanks to the spacious dimensions in the outfield in Miami. Beltran hasn't looked so hot since the calendar flipped to June, and his defense is actually a mess right now. This isn't a great loss.
The second game of the series will feature a bit of what might have been for the Yankees and Marlins. Nathan Eovaldi gets a start against his old team for the first time being dealt to New York in the offseason. Opposite him on the mound will be one of the players he was traded for in David Phelps. One game should be enough to decide whether the trade was worth it, right? Good.
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