Seattle @ New York preview
Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( Aug 20, 2010 ) Seattle 6, NY Yankees 0
Watching Felix Hernandez manhandle the New York Yankees with such ease Friday night could have made Jason Vargas a bit uneasy.
When Vargas (9-5) takes the mound Saturday at Yankee Stadium for the second game of a three-game set against New York, he'll have the unenviable task of trying to match Hernandez's mesmerizing performance.
The Yankees went down without a whimper in the series opener as Hernandez toyed with their star-studded, high-priced lineup, striking out 11 and scattering four hits in eight scoreless innings of a 6-0 victory.
Still, New York maintained its one-game lead in the American League East when Tampa Bay lost at Oakland for the second straight night.
Not that Hernandez’s mastery was a fluke. Already the owner of a pair of complete-game victories over New York this season, he improved to 3-0 on the year against the Yankees, having yielded one run in 26 innings to go with 30 strikeouts.
Now put yourself in Vargas' shoes. The 27-year-old right-hander will be looking to shut down baseball's best team for a second straight day, no easy task considering New York has an American League-leading 40 home wins and had scored 26 runs it its previous three games before being shackled by Hernandez.
Vargas does have a few things going for him. He’s having a breakthrough season with Seattle, having won three consecutive starts entering today’s game. He’s also posted career bests – by a wide margin – in wins, ERA (3.15), batting average against (.239) and starts (23).
In his one start vs. the Yankees this year, Vargas acquitted himself well by allowing one run on nine hits in seven innings of a 3-1 defeat in Seattle on July 8.
Vargas also gets a break in that he won’t have to deal with Yankees third baseman and cleanup hitter Alex Rodriguez, who re-aggravated a calf strain and is expected to be sidelined for a few days.
New York manager Joe Girardi might be wise to bump up second baseman Robinson Cano to Rodriguez’s slot in the lineup. Cano is batting .714 (5-for-7) lifetime with a pair of doubles against Vargas.
The Yankees will hand the ball to Jekyll-and-Hyde right-hander Javier Vazquez (9-9), who will look to reverse a trend that has seen him throw fewer innings in each of his last five starts.
After a ghastly 1-4 start to the season in which his ERA was over eight, Vazquez began to find his groove, putting together a pair of three-game winning streaks to improve to 9-7 while going seven innings seven times in a 10-start span.
He has since ground to a halt, going 0-2 in his last four starts and failing to get through the fifth innings in his last two outings.
Vazquez did have his best effort of the season against the Mariners, tossing seven innings of three-hit shutout ball on July. Alas, it went for naught as the Yankees’ bullpen gave up four runs in a 4-1 loss.