New York Yankees: Red Sox Series Preview/Predictions

Game Two

Boston Red Sox @ New York Yankees

Zack Godley vs. Masahiro Tanaka

Saturday, August 1, 7:07 pm

Masahiro Tanaka went down a couple of weeks ago after taking a line drive to the head off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton. Because of it, he has missed the start of the season and likely would’ve made his first start by now, but it will instead come on Saturday night against the Red Sox in the Bronx.

In 2019 Tanaka held an ERA of 4.45 with a record of 11-9 while averaging a little under six innings per game as well. In his first start of the season, Tanaka will be going up against a rather unimpressive Red Sox lineup with the exception of a few players.

The question is; how long will Tanaka be in the game? There’s a chance that if the Yankees are up big, Boone pulls him simply so he could see if Tanaka had fully recovered and was ready to take on a full workload yet, if the game is out of hand from the Red Sox, there isn’t much of a reason to keep Tanaka in.

As for the Red Sox, they’ll throw Zack Godley on the mound who in 2019 was anything but Godley. Godley typically isn’t a starter but will get the start for Boston on Saturday night in the Bronx. In 33 appearances last season, Godley started only nine games.

However, in 33 total appearances, Godley pitched a total of 92 innings or a little under three innings per appearance. In those 33 appearances, Godley held an ERA of 5.97… certainly not great. This season, Godley has appeared in one game for the Red Sox, and was much better.

In four innings of relief, Godley struck out seven while not allowing a single hit, run or walk. That being said, he appears to have improved quite a bit from last season when he held an ERA of 5.97.

Prediction: Yankees win 3-2

Game two is going to be a little tighter than game one as Masahiro Tanaka makes his return to the mound, and Zack Godley makes his first start of the season. Although he was horrible in 2019, Godley has been very impressive so far in 2020, and he should last about three or four innings for the Red Sox.

However, the Red Sox bullpen certainly isn’t the best in the MLB and the Yankees should be able to put together enough runs to get a win in game two. As for Masahiro Tanaka, I would expect him to pitch about five or six innings as he makes his first start of the 2020 season, following a scary injury that could’ve been much worse than it turned out to be.

In the end, I think the Yankees win a close one and take a 2-0 series lead.