It's bad enough the New York Yankees have to travel to a National League ballpark and have their pitcher, David Phelps, take hacks at the plate. However, Wednesday's lineup reached another level of low as Joe Girardi, after mixing and matching put out probably the weakest Yankees lineup in decades.
Leading off will be Brett Gardner followed by Robinson Cano. Vernon Wells is the third place hitter as he has shown some power in 2013. Lyle Overbay cleans up followed by the always threatening Ichiro Suzuki. Jayson Nix bats behind Ichiro who is then followed by Chris Nelson. Wrapping up the batting lineup, it's Justine Romain and Phelps.
Last night the Yankees were shutout with a similar lineup as they were unable to use the thin airs of Denver to their favor. They lost the game 2-0 on a Carlos Gonzalez two-run home run. Hiroki Kuroda had a dominant outing going seve innings with one walk, three strikeouts and seven hits while committing that single mistake to one of the more dangerous hitters in baseball.
As far as power supply in that lineup, the Yankees have Cano, Wells and Overbay right in the middle of the order. Granted, they aren't the big three you'd prefer, outside of Cano, they have provided pop for the Yankees in recent games.
Phelps has never hit in his 40 games played at the major league level. So those at-bats will be entertaining to watch. Maybe Girardi can smell some combustion in Boston as the Red Sox have struggled in previous games? He doesn't want to over work players who will be important role players as their healthy stars get ready to come back.
Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson are on their way back. Hang in there Yankee fans, anyways, it's just the Colorado Rockies. Nobody's going to remember this series at the end of the year.
Game time is at 8:40 p.m. ET. Phelps will be opposed by Juan Nicasio.
