The New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays will close out their season-opening series on Thursday night when CC Sabathia takes the mound against a prospect making his major league debut.
Sabathia hasn't pitched in an MLB game since May 10, 2014 and will make his season debut at 7:05 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium. Jays' top prospect Daniel Norris will appear in his first professional contest after pitching only five games above the Double-A level. However, the matchup could be favorable for the youngster considering Sabathia is coming off knee surgery and the Yankees' offense has been dismal thus far.
Toronto looked like they were about to take a 2-0 series lead last night when they entered the bottom of the eighth inning with a two run cushion. However, the Blue Jays' bullpen couldn't hold onto starter R.A. Dickey's lead and New York scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning to go ahead 4-3. Reliever Andrew Miller preserved the lead and earned a save in the top of the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning.
But the series will be decided tonight when two left-handers take the hill. Sabathia owns a 15-4 career record against the Blue Jays with a 3.13 ERA, 1.064 WHIP and 130 strikeouts in 20 starts (141 innings). On the other hand, the 21-year-old Norris is 16-13 with a 4.02 ERA, 1.343 WHIP and 306 strikeouts in 63 games (60 starts), totaling 257 2/3 innings in three minor league seasons.
Norris earned himself a spot in the Jays' rotation thanks to a good spring training as well as the injury to Marcus Stroman (torn ACL), which will keep him out for the entire season. In seven spring training starts, Norris notched a 4-0 record with a 2.93 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 30 strikeouts (27 2/3 innings). The hard-throwing left-hander could benefit from the Yankees' offensive struggles.
Through the first two games of the series, New York has only 10 hits, seven walks and five runs. They accumulated just two runs on seven hits before the eighth inning of last night's game. Toronto has 13 hits, eight walks and nine runs in the first two games against New York's top starters (Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda), while the Yankees have struggled against Dickey and Drew Hutchison.
Sabathia will have a lot on his plate in his first game in nearly a year when he faces a Blue Jays lineup that features the newly acquired Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson as well as Jose Reyes, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and others.
It'll also be a big night for Norris, who will be debuting at the renowned Yankee Stadium, which is a big change of scenery from the 1978 Volkswagen van that he lives in. Yes, you heard that right.
You can check out the live stream of tonight's game here as well as the live radio broadcast here (if you're a Yankees fan) or here (if you're a Blue Jays fan).
