Game 5 Preview: Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees

Weather permitting, the Rays and Yankees will play at some point today.

Snow on Monday forced the New York Yankees to move their home opener to today with first pitch scheduled just after 4:00 pm. While MLB schedule planners were clever enough to slot in an “Opening Day 2.0” in case Monday needed to be cancelled, they obviously didn’t have a contingency for rain across the entire week. So we’ll see when and if these teams can meet at all.

Starting Pitchers

Chris Archer vs Jordan Montgomery

Archer started the season for the Rays on March 29th, allowing four runs over six innings pitched against the Boston Red Sox. He collected six stikeouts and walked a batter, while allowing four runs on six hits.

Jordan Montgomery Scouting Report:

Montgomery will be making his season debut.

His repertoire, per Brooks Baseball

In 2017, he relied primarily on his Curve (81mph) and Sinker (92mph), also mixing in a Change (85mph), Fourseam Fastball (92mph) and Slider (86mph).

Basic description of 2017 pitches compared to other LHP:

His curve has primarily 12-6 movement, generates more whiffs/swing compared to other pitchers’ curves, is much harder than usual and has little depth. His sinker has less armside run than typical, has little sinking action compared to a true sinker, results in somewhat more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ sinkers and has slightly above average velo. His change has slight cut action, has an extreme amount of backspin, is slightly firmer than usual and results in somewhat more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ changeups. His fourseam fastball has good “rising” action, has essentially average velo, results in somewhat more flyballs compared to other pitchers’ fourseamers and has slightly less natural movement than typical. His slider is much harder than usual, has less than expected depth and has primarily 12-6 movement.

Starting Lineups