GameThread for Game 2: Blue Jays @ Yankees

The undefeated Blue Jays take on the winless Yankees from the Bronx tonight with first pitch going at 7:05 pm. The Yankee Stadium faithful witnessed a rough start to their season on Monday afternoon as Masahiro Tanaka pitching with an injured UCL tossed some very hittable fastballs to the Blue Jays power hitters. What resulted was a 6-1 win for Toronto and a victorious Opening Day for the first time since 2012 in Cleveland.

With another win today the Blue Jays would capture a series in New York for the second time out of the last three which would reverse the nasty trend of series losses in the Bronx that lasted a very long time. Pitching for the Jays is knuckleballer R.A. Dickey going up against Michael Pineda for the Evil Empire. When Pineda isn't hurt or suspended for cheating, the Dominican can be straight up nasty on the mound. In 13 starts last year, the righty amassed an ERA of 1.89 and a KK/B rate of 8.43 (he's no Phil Hughes though).

For all his filthiness, Pineda is essentially a two pitch hurler with a four-seamer and slider making up the large bulk of his repertoire. A changeup has also emerged against lefty hitters and has been pretty effective in a small sample size. The upcoming season is an important one for Pineda as he is being depended on by the Yankees to be a workhorse for the team with so many questions marks in their rotation. He's also in his first year of arbitration, a $2.1 million contract, and will be in line for a sizeable raise if he is able to pitch a solid amount of innings.

The six through eight spots in the Blue Jays lineup create a fun tale about a historical natural disaster a few centuries ago.

Miguel Castro became the youngest pitcher to ever appear in a game with the Blue Jays on Monday, but that break shouldn't last long as Roberto Osuna is 43 days younger than the Dominican and doesn't appear to be aging any faster than his friend.

In other fun facts, R.A. Dickey and Josh Thole will see their streak of 55 straight starts as a battery come to an end tonight which was the longest in the league.

Bullpen Usage

Blue Jays

• Yesterday: Day Off
• Two Days Ago: Aaron Loup (1.2 IP, 25 pitches), Miguel Castro (1.1 IP, 12 pitches)

Yankees

• Yesterday: Day Off
• Two Days Ago: Chris Martin (1.0 IP, 17 pitches), Chasen Shreve (1.1 IP, 23 pitches), David Carpenter (1.2 IP, 17 pitches), Justin Wilson (0.2 IP, 24 pitches), Esmil Rogers (0.1 IP, 4 pitches)

GO JAYS GO! Don't be knobs to the mods!

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