Game 56: Let’s try this again

There’s no rain in tonight’s forecast, which means there will be baseball played in the Bronx. Rainouts like last night stink, but there were a couple positives from the postponement. One, no bullpen game this weekend. Two, an extra opportunity for the Yankees to take on the Red Sox at full-strength (fingers crossed) later this year.

Now that the good news is out of the way, let’s get to the bad news: Boston has the advantage in tonight’s pitching matchup. The Yankees roughed up Chris Sale earlier this season, but that was a different guy. Since then, his velocity has ticked up and he’s pitched better. The Bombers will counter with another southpaw, JA Happ. Here are the lineups:

Clint Frazier is noticeably absent from tonight’s lineup. Meanwhile, Gardner is starting despite being toothless against lefties. The reason? Almost certainly defense. There have been no shortage of Frazier miscues in the outfield lately, and with a fly ball pitcher like Happ on the mound, perhaps there’s some sense to this.

Then again, Frazier could have been the DH instead of Morales. Ultimately, it looks like the decision came down to batter-vs.-pitcher history. For what it’s worth, Morales has a .268/.302/.561 line in 43 plate appearances vs. Sale, including three homers. Clint is one-for-six with a homer against him.

Notes: A few injury updates to pass along via Lindsey Adler: Aaron Judge has started hitting off a tee, Giancarlo Stanton is “probably close” to restarting his rehab assignment, and Dellin Betances will throw a bullpen on Sunday. Lastly, an update on Didi Gregorius’s rehab assignment:

Let’s recap the Didi rehab assignment with the RailRiders:

Tuesday: Tornado warning, no game
Wednesday: Tornado watch, doubleheader gets in; one game with Didi
Thursday: Rain, no game
Friday: No power in stadium

— Conor Foley (@RailRidersTT) May 31, 2019

Sheesh, no luck whatsoever. Steven will have more on this in tonight’s edition of Down on the Farm.

Enjoy the game, everyone.