Happy Tanaka Day, everyone! After the game we just suffered through, I think we all deserve this and, more importantly, the Yankees need this.
Today's lineup: Ellsbury 8 Gardner 7 Teixeira 3 McCann 2 Soriano DH Johnson 5 Roberts 4 Ichiro 9 Solarte 6 Tanaka 1
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) May 3, 2014Today's lineup looks like it's a day of rest for some of the old folks. Both Derek Jeter and Carlos Beltran are out of the lineup because they're too old and frail to play a day game after an after-midnight game. Jacoby Ellsbury is in center field and batting in the leadoff spot, while Brett Gardner is in left and hitting second. Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann, and Alfonso Soriano are in the heart of the lineup. Kelly Johnson returns from the dead and gets a rare start at third base. Brian Roberts is in the game, because he has to be while Ichiro Suzuki is in right field. Yangervis Solarte gets his first start at shortstop, so we'll see how that goes.
According to Joe Girardi, Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley are both unavailable today after pitching two innings each last night. That would mean the bullpen is David Robertson, Dellin Betances, Matt Thornton, and Preston Claiborne. Alfredo Aceves will be the long reliever for the time being and is going to be used as a reliever. That is probably for the best because he has a 3.53 ERA and 4.06 FIP out of the bullpen, compared to a 4.29 ERA and 5.52 FIP as a starter. Aceves was so valuable to the Yankees because he could work in both short and long relief as well as make a spot start if needed, but he shouldn't be a longterm rotation option, even compared to Vidal Nuno.