The Yankees are back at their home-away-from-home field, and they’ll stay on TV as well for the second straight day following their George Lombard Jr.-led victory over the Red Sox yesterday. The Twins are rolling into Tampa today, and they’ll be facing one of the depth arms on the pitching staff in Paul Blackburn.
Blackburn was picked up late last year after getting released by the Mets, and wound up appearing in eight games in the regular season as well as mop up duty in Game 1 of last year’s ALDS
matchup with the Blue Jays. He re-signed with the team over the offseason on a one-year, $2 million deal, meaning he’s one of the arms holding down a 26-man roster spot and has a leg up on making it to the Opening Day roster. So far this spring he’s pitched in two games (one start), tossing six innings of no-run ball. giving up seven hits and a walk against just three strikeouts in the process. He went four innings his last time out against Toronto, and he’ll look to build up his résumé as a potential inning-filler towards the bottom of the bullpen.
Opposite Blackburn will be Taj Bradley, a familiar face from the last three seasons playing within the Yankees’ division as a Ray. Traded at the deadline for Griffin Jax, Bradley had a rough second half, starting just six games and pitching to a 6.61 ERA in that span. Bradley was slated to pitch for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, but decided to pull out of the event last week and focus on his involvement with his new-ish team during spring instead as he looks to lock down one of Minnesota’s rotation spots. Thus far in spring, Bradley has started twice and pitched five innings, allowing six runs on 11 hits with nine strikeouts against just one walk.
The top of the Yankees’ lineup today is a familiar bunch, with the three primary non-Aaron Judge outfielders from 2025 taking the stage. From left to right, it’s Jasson Domínguez, Trent Grisham, and Cody Bellinger with the Martian batting second between Grisham and Bellinger. Giancarlo Stanton cleans up at DH and Ryan McMahon makes his second start of the spring at shortstop to see if he can be a viable backup to José Caballero with Anthony Volpe out. J.C. Escarra catches, while Max Schuemann, Seth Brown, and Zack Short fill out the order.
How to watch
Location: George M. Steinbrenner Field — Tampa, FL
First pitch: 1:05 pm ET
TV broadcast: YES Network
Radio broadcast: N/A
Online stream: Gotham Sports Network, Twins.TV
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