Clarke Schmidt is my second favorite Clark tonight (after Griswold….obviously). He should thrive, we don’t lose a tie. Isolate 5 innings.

Lived in Tampa about 10 years. Only time the Trop would be remotely filled other than a Monster Truck Rally (sigh) is when the Yankees are in town. Everyone outside of Florida wonders why the Rays don't draw. First, their stadium is like in Ocala. Second, Tampa is a Yankees town (no one cares about St. Pete) 100 percent thanks to Big George. I actually was his neighbor for while. Back in the day there was this beautiful little island called Davis Island. I could never afford it now but then it was half skid-row college apartments, half multi-millionaires. Very strange. Jeter's place was there too. I had a point (this matters a little more than usual to home team) but got longwinded.

The Rays have won six of the last 10 meetings with the Yankees but Clarke Schmidt has been dynamite this year winning six of his seven starts. And in all seven of his starts he's had this year, he hasn't allowed more than three runs. April 19th he beat the Rays 5-3 and allowed only one run. Taj Bradley makes his first start of the season. Yankees cheap today.

The Yankees can draw walks and make life miserable for opposing pitchers but they have also allowed 9/12 right handed starters to go over 4.5 Ks this year. Taj Bradley certainly had his own issues last year but he still had a solid swinging strike rate above 11% and he went for at least 4 strikeouts in 19/21 starts. He should be around this number with ease based on his track record, as long he's pitching well, plus he threw 92 pitches in his last start at AAA, so I don't anticipate many restrictions here. Across those two starts at AAA, Bradley racked up 15 strikeouts in 11 innings, and I really believe this number should be at 5.5 minimum.