The New York Yankees take their two-game losing streak and three-game hitting funk to Kansas City to face the Royals. And the game already has some ominous undertones. First of all, the Royals have not won at home this season. They are 0-10 there this year. Why is this ominous? Consider that the Yankees have already stopped Brian Matusz‘s losing streak and ended Ivan Nova‘s winning streak. The superstition thing is creating crazy arcs of static electricity. Add in the fact that the Yankees will feature a pitcher who has never started a game in the big leagues and as a team, are banged up, let’s just say that confidence isn’t exactly oozing from the pores this afternoon.

The Yankees’ suddenly feckless lineup will face Danny Duffy, the young left-handed Royals’ pitcher. Duffy has missed some time due to discomfort in his pitching elbow. That’s never a good thing. And in Duffy’s limited experience facing the Yankees, he has gotten pummeled. Duffy, when healthy, throws a 95 MPH, four-seam fastball, a slider, a curve and a change. He uses the slider the least of all his secondary pitches.  Duffy can strike a lot batters out at times but also tends to walk quite a few. That latter quality will get him in trouble with the Yankees…or at least the Yankees of a week ago. The Royals really need a long outing from one of their starters, but the odds with Duffy are long in that direction.

As mentioned earlier today, David Phelps gets his big start today and since that post covered his potential outing, it won’t be repeated here. Reports are that he will have lots of family in the stands, so he’ll have a big rooting section. Good luck, Mr. Phelps. Hopefully this outing won’t self-destruct in ten seconds.

The Lineups:

Yankees:

Derek Jeter – DH

Curtis Granderson – CF

Mark Teixeira – 1B

Alex Rodriguez – 3B

Robinson Cano – 2B

Andruw Jones – RF

Eduardo Nunez – SS

Russell Martin – C

Jayson Nix – LF

The top five have been shaken up a bit. Jeter has a DH night.

Royals:

Jarrod Dyson – CF

Alex Gordon – LF

Billy Butler – DH

Eric Hosmer – 1B

Jeff Francoeur – RF

Mike Moustakas – 3B

Humberto Quintero – C

Chris Getz – 2B

Alcides Escobar – SS

The game starts at 8:10 and can be found locally on the YES Network.

David Phelps gets the start tonight against the Kansas City Royals in the post-Freddy era. And while it is always fun to see a young gun get a chance to show what he can do, there is also little comfort in such a start coming after two straight Yankee losses which has bumped the team all the way to fourth place in the division. Fourth place! Blasphemy! Phelps has been a mixed bag so far this season. He has looked brilliant and he has been whacked for four homers in just 17.2 innings. His walk percentage is higher than his minor league numbers and all his numbers suffer from such small sample sizes that we simply have no idea what to expect when he takes the mound tonight. But then again, after the starts from Freddy and Phil, what do the Yankees have to lose by giving him his chance?

(click “view full post” to continue reading)

Via Sweeney Murti, the Yankees will recall utility player Jayson Nix in the wake of Eric Chavez’s concussion like symptoms last night. Chavez will obviously go on the DL to make room on the active roster, but Nix is not currently on the 40 man roster, so an additional move will have to be made to free up a spot there. The most likely scenario would be to move either Michael Pineda or Joba Chamberlain to the 60 day DL. The addition of Nix would seem to indicate that the team probably won’t be going to a 12 man pitching staff for this series with the Royals either, which makes pretty much no sense to me at this point. Recall Ramiro Pena too, and give yourself a full bench already.