The Tampa Bay Rays have had an excellent first week of baseball as they have accrued a record of 5-2 (the best start in franchise history) while every aspect of the team has impressed. The New York Yankees meanwhile have had a rough go of it, and now they’ve lost Gary Sanchez for an indeterminable amount of time. So far they have a record of 2-4 and sit in fourth place in the division.

The two teams will clash this afternoon at 1pm in Yankee Stadium as the Yankees will play their home opener. Both teams will share an off day tomorrow, and then play the final two games of the series on Wednesday and Thursday.

Starting Pitchers

Alex Cobb vs Michael Pineda

Cobb had a solid season debut his last time out on the 5th against the Yankees back at Tropicana Field. He worked two outs into the sixth inning and only allowed a run on four hits, while he walked one and struck out four. The lone run scored thanks to a solo homer from Jacoby Ellsbury.

Michael Pineda Scouting Report

Pineda opposed Cobb during that Wednesday start and things fell apart quickly for him. The Rays were able to push him out of the game by the end of the fourth inning, and by that time they had already scored four runs on eight hits, including a homer. Pineda for his part had strikeout stuff, racking up six of them and walking none, just went the Rays made contact, it wasn’t good for Pineda or the Yankees.

Arsenal

Pineda will attack hitters with three different pitches: Change-up, Slider, and a Cutter. His cutter will come in the low to mid 90’s while his change-up and slider will range from the mid to high 80’s.

Pineda relies heavily on his cutter, throwing it over 50% of the time, regardless of who is in the batter’s box. However, against lefties, he does mix in his change-up a lot more often then he does against lefties where he hardly uses the pitch at all. Essentially, he’s a two pitch pitcher against righties, but uses all three of his pitches against lefties.

He lives in the bottom of the zone, with his change-up and slider often falling completely out of it. While he uses his cutter to paint the inner corners on hitters.

His Splits

• vs LHB: .270/.340/.460 - .343 wOBA - 9 HR - 28.9 K% - 8.6 BB% - 336 PA
• vs RHB: .260/.307/.463 - .328 wOBA - 18 HR - 26.2 K% - 5.7 BB% - 420 PA
• HOME: .254/.313/.491 - .341 wOBA - 20 HR - 27.7 K% - 7.0 BB% - 372 PA
• AWAY: .274/.331/.433 - .329 wOBA - 7 HR - 27.1 K% - 7.0 BB% - 384 PA

Times Through the Order

• 1st: .283/.340/.471 - .347 wOBA - 9 HR - 30.2 K% - 7.3 BB% - 288 PA
• 2nd: .244/.298/.443 - .317 wOBA - 10 HR - 26.9 K% - 5.6 BB% - 286 PA
• 3rd: .268/.333/.482 - .347 wOBA - 8 HR - 23.9 K% - 8.9 BB% - 180 PA

Starting Lineups