The NY Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are playing at Fenway Park on the MLB schedule for the third game of their series after splitting the first two and the matchup starts at 7:10 pm ET and is streaming from MLB.com and comes after the Michael Pineda pine tar situation for the teams and that is now behind them as CC Sabathia takes the mound for the Yanks in the finale of the three-game set.
The Yankees won the first game with a strong start from Masahiro Tanaka in his first chance to pitch at Fenway Park, while the Red Sox won on Wednesday after a great game from Lackey and the drama from Pineda. The whole situation got a bit out of control, but after Pineda was seen after the game in Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox with pine tar on his hand, everyone knew to look out for it and this time he was caught and ejected and that gave the Yankees a tough task at bringing in relievers to take over.
Pineda was erratic in the first inning and that was without the pine tar and in the second inning he said he needed it badly to get a grip on the ball and while everyone in baseball knows that's why pitchers do it, it is still against the rules and he was ejected. Joe Girardi and John Farrell both understood the situation and didn't blame anyone for it, but now Pineda will be under the microscope, especially when he pitches against the Red Sox in the future and he likely will need to, as the Yankees are already down a starter with Ivan Nova needing surgery after tearing a ligament in his elbow and he will be out for the year with a Tommy John procedure.
Pineda took the loss after giving up early runs in the game on Wednesday and Lackey totally shut down the Yankees and now Pineda will be suspended for 10 games following the incident and that is a big hit for a team that is now down another pitcher already with Nova. Yankees players did not make a big deal out of what happened and many in baseball shrugged and said they feel a rule change is needed.
The Yankees remain in first place in the AL East early in the season and they are 12-9 and looking to get a win on Thursday before they head home to start a series with the LA Angels and then they will have the Seattle Mariners coming in after they had lost eight of nine games and they snapped that with a Kyle Seager walk-off home run on Wednesday. The Yankees come into the game ranked 20th in runs this season, but they are fourth overall in batting average and fifth in slugging and they will try and win the series finale on Thursday night. The Yanks are 22nd in the league in Era to start off and they are 11th in quality starts and now the depth of the rotation will be tested with Nova out and Pineda down for a week.