After spending most of the last two months in nearby Tampa, the Yankees return to St. Pete for their first series against the Rays. Javier Vazquez will kick off his second stint with the Yankees and hopefully do his best to erase the memories of his last performance in pinstripes (think Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS).
| vs. David Price | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI |
| Derek Jeter SS | 11 | 0.100 | 0.182 | 0.400 | 1 | 1 |
| Nick Johnson DH | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark Teixeira 1B | 8 | 0.143 | 0.250 | 0.143 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex Rodriguez 3B | 11 | 0.333 | 0.455 | 0.778 | 1 | 2 |
| Robinson Cano 2B | 8 | 0.143 | 0.250 | 0.143 | 0 | 1 |
| Jorge Posada C | 8 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 |
| Nick Swisher RF | 8 | 0.200 | 0.500 | 0.800 | 1 | 1 |
| Marcus Thames LF | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 |
| Curtis Granderson CF | 5 | 0.200 | 0.200 | 0.200 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 59 | 0.157 | 0.254 | 0.353 | 3 | 5 |
| vs. Javier Vazquez | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI |
| Jason Bartlett SS | 31 | 0.267 | 0.290 | 0.333 | 0 | 0 |
| Carl Crawford LF | 27 | 0.423 | 0.444 | 0.692 | 0 | 2 |
| Ben Zobrist RF | 3 | 0.288 | 0.315 | 0.418 | 0 | 0 |
| Evan Longoria 3B | 6 | 0.167 | 0.167 | 0.333 | 0 | 1 |
| Carlos Pena 1B | 17 | 0.118 | 0.118 | 0.353 | 1 | 2 |
| B.J. Upton CF | 13 | 0.500 | 0.538 | 0.500 | 0 | 1 |
| Willie Aybar DH | 7 | 0.143 | 0.143 | 0.143 | 0 | 0 |
| Dioner Navarro C | 12 | 0.250 | 0.250 | 0.333 | 0 | 0 |
| Sean Rodriguez 2B | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 116 | 0.292 | 0.302 | 0.425 | 1 | 6 |
- At the end of last season, the Yankees suspected that the Rays were purposely throwing at Mark Teixeira in retaliation for C.C. Sabathia breaking Carlos Pena’s hand. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees respond in the new season.
- Lefty power outage: Chase Utley is the only left handed hitter to go deep against David Price.
- Familiarity breads contempt: Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez have faced Price more than any other hitter. While Jeter has struggled (.100), Arod has had a little more success (.333). However, both have hit a homer off the Rays’ lefty.
- How far has Pat Burrell fallen on the Rays depth chart? Despite having impressive numbers (.310/.333/.476) against Vazquez in a meaningful sample of 45 PAs, he still rides the bench.
- Brett Gardner is sitting out once again in favor of Marcus Thames. The over/under on how many times Michael Kay complains about this move has been set at 10.
- Today is David Robertson’s 25th birthday.
- Alex Rodriguez will move into sole possession of 8th place on the All-Time HR list with his next long ball. Arod is currently tied with Mark McGwire at 583.
- Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira are both looking for their first hits of the season. Johnson has walked six times, however, and has taken over 75% of all pitches thrown to him so far this season.
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