Because when you've lost seven straight and 10 of 11, nothing helps you right the ship like a trip to New Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees' offense has been a bit lackluster itself recently - 18 runs over the last six games, against the White Sox and Cleveland. Of course, those were road games, and there's no particular shame in scoring three runs a game away from the Yankees' rather intimate home park, but the friendly media natives will take any excuse they can find to get restless.
New York made a trade today to add 29-year-old righty-hitting outfielder Steve Pearce from the Astros. Pearce has an excellent offensive track record over the past five years in AAA, including a few months with the Yankees' AAA team earlier this year, and he's seen time in the majors with Baltimore and Houston already in 2012. He's a career .277/.347/.484 hitter against lefty pitching. (The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees play in neither Scranton nor Wilkes-Barre but the borough of Moosic, Pennsylvania. The more you know...)
The Yankees will run out David Phelps, Phil Hughes and CC Sabathia. They'll be opposed by Alvarez, Romero and Happ. Phelps, tonight's starter, is a righty from Notre Dame who's making a strong case for a permanent spot in the Yankees' rotation. He has been very effective as a low-leverage reliever, and he's done fine as a starter, holding hitters to a .253/.333/.404 line and a 2.92 ERA over 24.2 innings.
Their bullpen is a bit disheveled at the moment, as Rafael Soriano took a Jason Kipnis liner off his hand yesterday in recording out a four-out save (consider him day-to-day), and setup man David Robertson's wife has been expecting for some time. The other relievers are the usual suspects (Logan, Rapada, Eppley), the returning Joba Chamberlain, and sinker specialist/long man Derek Lowe.
Yankees are a -185 favorite. First pitch is at 7:05.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20120827174757218