The Baltimore Orioles and NY Yankees are playing at Yankee Stadium on Monday afternoon in the final home opener in the Bronx for Derek Jeter and the game at 1:05 pm ET comes streaming from the MLB.com website and the Opening Day game is a big one for New York and they have Hiroki Kuroda on the mound against Ubaldo Jimenez for the O's.
The Yankees come into the game after a win against the Blue Jays and now they are 3-3 on the season after opening up on the road against Houston and Toronto and now they start a set against more AL East opponents in the Orioles and then against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees got a win from CC Sabathia in the game against Toronto, but before that they lost Mark Teixeira to the DL and now they may need to scramble a bit, as they have to move Kelly Johnson over and now it's up to the rookies to get things done at the hot corner with A-Rod out.
The Yankees have been off to an up and down start, but they are playing well as they return home and now Jeter has the chance to play in front of the home fans for the first time this season and that experience will be the last time he does it for his career. The Yankees got their second save from David Robertson and he has done a fine job so far at keeping the closer role with Mariano Rivera gone and while he is no Mo, he can be his own style of closer and so far the results have been very good.
The Yankees have Kuroda on the mound against Ubaldo Jimenez and he was one of the prize signings for the Orioles this offseason and both pitchers come into the game at 0-1 and this comes ahead of Ivan Nova pitching in game 2 for the Yankees. The Yanks have scored 20 runs in six games and they come in ranked 11th in batting average so far and the team is hoping that players like Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann start performing now that they are at the Stadium and the team also will have Masahiro Tanaka make his US debut after he pitched against the Blue Jays in Canada.
Jeter is already setting a milestone by playing in this game at home and he will be the number two hitter in the lineup and after the games this weekend, the eventual Hall of Fame shortstop caught up with another HOF player, as he matched Paul Molitor in the all-time hit list and the passed him and now next on the list is another one in Carl Yastrzemski and he is less than 100 away from that. The Yankees have a sub 4.00 ERA and they are hoping that Kuroda can be sharper than he was in his first start of the season. The Yankees are second in the AL East to start the season and O's are in fourth place after winning against the Tigers coming in and they are 2-4 on the season.
Check here for the Yankees and the Orioles live coverage of the home opener.