Before their home opener in the Bronx on Monday, the New York Yankees will have to go through the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend in a three game series. These two division rivals split their head-to-head contests last year with the O’s taking the ever so slight advantage overall, 10-9. The Birds will be at home as well, where they were 19-games over .500 in 2016.
This series will be contested from Friday, April 7, 2017 through Sunday, April 9, 2017 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The games on Friday and Sunday will be seen on MLB Network with Saturday’s game seen on Fox Sports 1.
Bet on MLB odds at BookMaker.eu every day of the season.
Pitching Matchups
The Orioles opened the season with a three-man rotation thanks to a pair of off days in the season’s opening week. Baltimore will have to add an arm to the roster in time for Sunday’s game, but figure to go with Ubaldo Jimenez and Kevin Gausman in the first two contests of this series. If all goes well, the Birds will bring Wade Miley off the DL to start on Sunday.
New York will counter Baltimore’s hurlers with Luis Severino against Jimenez on Friday night and then turn to their veterans with Masahiro Tanaka looking to rebound from a rough first start while taking the ball on Saturday against Gausman. It’ll be C.C. Sabathia against Miley on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday’s matchup is the premier showdown of this series. The Rays rocked Tanaka on Sunday, knocking him out of the game in the third inning after being charged with seven runs on eight hits and giving up a pair of home runs.
If he leaves the ball out of the plate again on Saturday, the Orioles will take advantage. Camden Yards is a bandbox and the O’s lineup may not be loaded with speedsters, but they can mash.
Tanaka should rebound from his rough outing just fine, however. He’s handled the O’s well in his career, facing them five times and going 1-1 with a 2.39 ERA and 0.876 WHIP in 37.2 innings of work.
As for Gausman, he’s the Birds’ de facto ace with Chris Tillman on the shelf. The 26-year old right-hander really broke out last year with a 3.61 ERA in 179.2 innings. The restrictions are off him this year though he struggled with efficiency in his Opening Day start against the Blue Jays. Toronto knocked him out after 5.1 innings with a pitch count in the triple-digits, but he did keep the team in the game.
The righty ultimately left with a no-decision after holding a powerful Jays’ lineup to two runs on five hits while striking out four. His biggest weakness was he allowed four walks as he struggled to find the strike zone, particularly in a difficult fifth inning.
Park Factor
Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a hitter’s haven. It’s not quite Coors Field, but it’s got very friendly dimensions in the power allies and is a very homer friendly ballpark.
This plays big in a series between two teams with questionable starting staffs and plenty of power.
Saturday’s game may be the one exception as Tanaka and Gausman square off, but both have shown they can give up the long ball themselves with Gausman surrendering 28 last year and Tanaka giving up a pair against the Rays in his first start of the year.
Outside of those two, Jimenez, Miley, Severino and Sabathia can all give up the homer and these lineups have more than enough hitters capable of going yard.
In each of the last four seasons, a Baltimore Oriole has led all of baseball in home runs. Of those four times, twice it was Chris Davis and last year it was Mark Trumbo. The latter of the two showed the power with a walk-off jack in the 11th inning on Opening Day.
The O’s had six players with at least 20 bombs last year and all of Davis, Jonathan Schoop, J.J Hardy, Manny Machado, Adam Jones, and Trumbo had at least one season with 25 or more bombs. Of that list all but Schoop have at least one with 30 or more.
Moving on to the Yankees, we saw the power from Greg Bird in spring training. The young first baseman tied with Bryce Harper slamming eight jacks in the spring. Ronald Torreyes and Chase Headly each had a homer off Jake Odorizzi on Tuesday while Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Matt Holliday have plenty of pop.
Given the power and the park, look for plenty of runs over these three games with most of that offense generated by the home run.
Names to Remember
The big names on these teams are easy, but keep an eye on a couple of sluggers off the bench for each team.
For the Yankees, Bird is the everyday first baseman, but they have a thumper on the pine that could get a big at bat or two if the situation arises and that’s Chris Carter.
Signed late in the offseason as insurance for Bird, Carter actually led the National League in home runs last year. He’s a homer-or-bust type hitter and he could see a key pitch hitting situation or two throughout the series. The threat of such a potent bat off the bench always looms.
On the other side, the Orioles’ name to remember is Trey Mancini. The young first baseman turned corner outfielder, made the roster off a very good spring and is a key figure for Sunday’s game against Sabathia and key pinch hitting option late in the game against a tough lefty like Aroldis Chapman. The Orioles have straight platoons in both outfield corners and neither Seth Smith nor Hyun Soo Kim will be given a late AB against a southpaw, those will go to Mancini.
BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go.
Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook!
