The NY Yankees and Houston Astros are playing on Thursday night to end their MLB opening series and so far the season has not started as planned for New York, as they have lost both games and now the matchup at 8:10 pm ET gives them a chance to get things right from Minute Maid Park and the matchup will be streaming online from the MLB.com website.
The Yankees will have Ivan Nova on the mound and he will be going up against Brett Oberholtzer and the Yanks are hoping their bats can wake up after spending millions of dollars in the offseason. Derek Jeter comes into his last season and so far the Yankees are winless and while it's the first week of the season, everyone is getting a little anxious, as the Yankees still have some major holes to take care of and that has already started to show in the first couple games of the season.
The infield is hella old and while Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlo Beltran and Brian McCann signed in the offseason, so far the three have been held in check. The team will toss Ivan Nova and then they will get to the anticipated debut of Masahiro Tanaka in Game 4 and the Yankees hope that they will be coming into that game with a win in hand. Losing Robinson Cano was something the Yankees were okay with happening, but the way the Mariners have started the season has put a point on the Yankee struggles, as they have gone 3-0 with a sweep of the LA Angels.
Joe Girardi was not worried about the first two games of the season, but the Astros have not swept anyone in over 15 years and the Yankees are hoping to avoid that fate. Things did not start off well after Dexter Fowler got it going again and now the team is hoping Nova can shut things down and he comes in after going 9-6 last season with a 3.10 ERA and that was one of the best stat lines for a Yankees pitcher last season. CC Sabathia didn't get it done in the opener and now more questions have come up about his health and whether he can be that number one starter this season. Nova went 16-4 with a 3.70 ERA in 2011 and the Yankees are hoping he can put up numbers like that this season after slumping in 2012 and being injured for part of last season.
The Yankees are 0-2 coming in and they have only scored three runs in two games and now they are looking to get back on the right track. It's early, but the team ranks in the bottom half of the league in runs, batting average and on base percentage as well as in ERA and now they head into a matchup with the Astros on Thursday before starting a set on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Check here for the Yankees and Astros live coverage from MLB.