It’s up to Ivan Nova to avoid an embarrassing sweep at the hands of a 111 loss team. He will be up against Brett Oberholtzer while looking to build upon his impressive 2013 campaign. Nova’s .673 career winning percentage as a starter is the third highest for any pitcher with at least 50 starts, behind only Kris Medlen and Lance Lynn. His 0.56 homers/nine innings was the second lowest among AL starters in 2013.
Nova will be facing the Astros for the first time, and even though it’s only the third game of the season, he senses some urgency. “Every game is important for us,” Nova said. “You don’t want to start the season losing games. We already lost two, but it’s not the end. It’s normal tomorrow; just trying to act confident, go out there and throw strikes to hitters.” He hopes to continue building on a great spring in which he went 2-1 with a 3.66 ERA in five starts, walking two and striking out 21 in 19 2/3 innings, with 21 hits. “The way I threw the ball, it was awesome,” he said. “I handled the spring without any pressure, not thinking too much about what’s going to be next. I just went out each and every day, one day at a time.”
Oberholtzer made 13 appearances in the majors last season with 10 starts. In those starts he was 4-5 with a 2.24 ERA and showed great control by allowing only 1.82 walks per nine innings. He said that the Yankees will challenge him with “a lot of experience.” Oberholtzer said, “I’m going to have to try to make quality pitches to stay in the game and not get too ahead of myself.”
Alfonso Soriano is on an 0-8 start to the season with four strikeouts. “It’s just me. I just try to swing at good pitches, because I think they’re going to give me something to hit,” Sori said. “But the first two games, I’ve just seen that they know I’m very aggressive. They’re not giving me anything to hit in the first couple of pitches, so I’ve got to be more selective and more calmed down at home plate.”
Girardi acknowledged that Soriano is still a bit off at the plate, but being just three games in the skipper isn’t pushing the panic button yet. “He’s just not quite on track,” Girardi said. “We talk about when it’s early in the season, sometimes it’s glaring. It happens. You’ve got 200 at bats under your belt, you don’t say much about it. He’s a very good hitter, and he’ll be productive.”
Notes on the game
The Yankees three runs in the first two games of the season is the fewest since 1998 when they also scored three.
The last time the Yankees started a season 0-3 was 2012, before that was 1998.
This years 0-2 start is the 3rd season in a row for the Yankees, the first time since 1964-66.
Derek Jeter is just two hits away from tying Paul Molitor (3,319) for 8th place on the all time list and 4th place on the AL all time list.
First pitch at 8:10 PM on Yes
