The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees are playing a Spring Training game on Saturday for the debut of Masahiro Tanaka and the Grapefruit League game comes from Steinbrenner Field at 1:05 pm ET and the Japanese pitcher will be on the mound for part of the game and it comes after the Yanks won over the Detroit Tigers and they next will play against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Tanaka will make his debut on Saturday and the game also has CC Sabathia in the game along with Hiroki Kuroda as well as Derek Jeter playing in his second game and that means it really is starting to heat up in Florida. The games get more serious as March goes on an all these games will get more intense and players will play more innings and pitcher will get higher counts after these games get going.
Tanaka is part of an influx of Yankees players from the offseason with Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian Roberts and the Japanese pitcher is the biggest mystery and the game on Sunday will also be airing on YES and will have coverage from Michael Kay. Joe Girardi said that he is excited to see the Japanese star in action after he signed for $155 million and the 25 year old has high expectations as he makes his debut in the US.
This season will be a big one for the Yankees, as Jeter is retiring and this will be his last chance at the postseason and the World Series and there is no guarantee that he will be healthy all year and adding to that is the Boston Red Sox and them winning the World Series. The spring training game comes on Saturday before the Sunday schedule picks up and next week the pitchers should get more time on the mound and the lineups should get filled with more and more starters as Girardi starts to figure out how he wants to use everyone. The rotation should be interesting as well, as Tanaka could end up being the third or fourth starter this season.
