Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET the New York Yankees (6-7) will head to Comerica Park to open up a four-game set vs. the Detroit Tigers (10-2) in which Game 1 will be shown on ESPN, or found free online by clicking this link. Yankees fans can listen to the radio broadcast on 101.9 WFAN, while Tigers fans may do the same on 97.1 The Ticket. CC Sabathia (0-2, 5.68 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Yankees against Alfredo Simon (2-0, 2.03 ERA).
The Tigers opened the season without Justin Verlander thanks to injured triceps, and Max Scherzer, who jumped to the Washington Nationals in free agency. They haven't skipped a beat, however, and offseason addition Alfredo Simon is a big reason why.
"He looks like he's taking a walk in the park when he's pitching," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus told MLB's official website. "It's like he's playing catch with his son in the backyard."
Simon had a breakout 2014 in which he doubled his career-high for starts, and went 15-10 with a 3.44 ERA. His FIP was much higher, creating concern about whether he'd be able to maintain the nice numbers. So far, so good.
On the other hand, the Yankees are likely feeling less hopeful about their big left-hander CC Sabathia, who has been hit hard twice this season and carries an ugly 5.68 ERA to the hill. Sabathia's sparkling strikeout-to-walk ratio (15.00), has manager Joe Girardi laying off the panic button.
"I'm just seeing better movement on his fastball," Joe Girardi said. "I'm seeing consistency in his changeup, it's not cutting. His slider is better. I just think he's locating a lot better and I think it's because he's healthy. It's hard when you're dealing with nagging injuries to go out there and perform at a high level."
The Yankees' offense has been carried of late by Alex Rodriguez, who will enter tonight's game batting .316 with four home runs and 11 RBI.
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