Blue Jays Lineup...
1. Kevin Pillar ® CF
2. Ezequiel Carrera (L) LF
3. Jose Bautista ® RF
4. Kendrys Morales (S) DH
5. Justin Smoak (S) 1B
6. Devon Travis ® 2B
7. Ryan Goins (L) SS
8. Luke Maile ® C
9. Chris Coghlan (L) 3B
Marco Estrada RHP
Estrada will be making this start on one extra day of rest after he was bumped back to make room for Aaron Sanchez. Estrada has allowed two runs or fewer in all but one of his five starts this season.
Yankees Lineup...
1. Brett Gardner (L) LF
2. Didi Gregorius (L) SS
3. Matt Holliday ® DH
4. Starlin Castro ® 2B
5. Jacoby Ellsbury (L) CF
6. Aaron Judge ® RF
7. Greg Bird (L) 1B
8. Austin Romine ® C
9. Ronald Torreyes ® 3B
Luis Severino RHP
Severino is coming off seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball against the Red Sox. He has whiffed 27 men against three walks in his last 22 innings, relying heavily on a lethal fastball-slider combo.
Preview
By Keegan Matheson / MLB.com |
The Blue Jays will send Marco Estrada to the mound for the Monday opener against Luis Severino and the Yankees as Toronto looks to build upon its first back-to-back wins of the season to end the month of April. But first-place New York will be no easy foe.
Estrada has continued to force weak contact this season alongside a strikeout rate of 9.9 per nine innings, the highest of his career as a starter. He's been especially locked in over his last three starts, allowing just two earned runs over 19 innings while striking out 24.
Severino has racked up the strikeouts, too, averaging 11.0 per nine innings during his breakout April. Still just 23, the right-hander owns a 3.00 ERA through his first four starts and is coming off seven shutout innings against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Wednesday.
New York's bats will pose a challenge for Toronto as the Yankees rank in the top-five in Major League Baseball in runs, home runs, and on-base percentage . This surge gave the Yankees the best record in baseball entering Sunday.
"I'm really pleased with how we started out of the gate," said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman on Sunday. "It's not just a month. I remind people, we came out of Spring Training with the best record in the entire game. We followed that up currently with, as we stand today, the best record in April. I feel like we've got some good momentum we're building, and hopefully we can add to it rather than worry about it getting derailed. One day at a time."
• Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge's huge April featured some monster exit velocities on his home runs, including the fastest of the Statcast era. On Friday, Judge took a 97.1-mph pitch from Baltimore starter Kevin Gausman and drove it 435 feet with an exit velocity of 119.4 mph, just topping the previous record held by Giancarlo Stanton.
• Starlin Castro is off to a great start of his own, hitting for power and reaching base at rates well above his career averages. He's also been one of New York's strongest hitters against Estrada. Over 32 career at-bats, Castro has 13 hits, including five for extra bases, giving him a 1.066 OPS in the matchup.
• Despite the similarly high strikeout numbers, Estrada and Severino go about their business in very different ways. Estrada's fastball has averaged 89.4 mph this season, just slightly above the changeup of Severino, which comes in at an average of 88.2 mph. Severino's four-seam fastball will be a challenge for Toronto, averaging 96.9 mph.
LETS GO BLUE JAYS *CLAP, CLAP* *CLAP, CLAP, CLAP*
LETS GO BLUE JAYS *CLAP, CLAP* *CLAP, CLAP, CLAP*
LETS GO BLUE JAYS *CLAP, CLAP* *CLAP, CLAP, CLAP*