It's weird to me, considering I live 20 minutes from Citizens Bank Park and 2 hours from the Bronx, and Phils tickets are relatively affordable while I think even the Pope's waitlisted for Yankee tickets, that my first regular season MLB game of 2023 will be a Yankee game. It's extremely odd to me.
What's happened in the last few years is that my family now has a friend and colleague who will get Yankee season tickets and will occasionally invite us to games. It happened last...August I think, we caught a Yanks-Jays game. He's got decent seats, we splurged for the day, it all went extremely well, even if the Yanks lost. Well, despite us already having a similar game on the calendar this year, a few months away, this friend came calling last night and asked if my dad and I wanted to go to tonight's game, once again against the Jays.
We didn't have anything going on, and the seats weren't bad, so that's what my afternoon is looking like.
This is...not a luxury I am used to, and not one that I'm unalarmed with the privilege of. I'm used to getting cheap Phils tickets and being alright with that, now we're doing stuff like this, and while I know these are among the perks of this strange and low-key life of mine...it doesn't exactly lose its novelty for me.
But regardless, here's what my thoughts are looking like heading into tonight's Yanks-Jays matchup:
-The pitching duel is looking like Domingo German vs. Yusei Kikuchi. Not our best starter, though German was excellent his last time out. Not their best starter either, though Yusei has 2 wins and is slowly getting more comfortable in his new home, which seems to be a theme for him. Should be pretty even, though somebody could have a sharp night without me expecting them to.
-I get to see Anthony Volpe play probably. The guy's already stealing a ton of bases and playing excellent short, but we're still waiting to see his full potential as a hitter. Yes, he's hit a homer, but I wanna see his full contact prowess in play. Maybe we'll get a glimpse at that.
-Judge did not hit a homer last time I saw him, which is odd because I saw him in 2022, the year where he hit a ton of them. He's been hot as of late, so there's a chance we could catch one, but seeing as he's still Aaron Judge and thereby capable of multi-strikeout days, I'm not holding my breath either.
-The back half of the lineup right now is still a little scary. Yeah, IKF had a good day yesterday, and Higgy can occasionally do some power stuff, but it's not ideal, and with Donaldson, Bader and Stanton all injured, it might be a bit til things get better. I think one of them could surprise me, and I don't know if Higgy'll be in [though, with Trevvy in yesterday there is a chance], but it's still a factor.
-Daulton Varsho was incredibly sharp when I saw him in Spring Training. He's been relatively sharp so far for the Jays. People like him and Kiermaier in the outfield could give the Jays a further edge against us.
-I've seen the Blue Jays play like 3 times already this season thanks to Spring Training matches. Seeing them again is...funny. Extremely funny, all things considered.
-It is genuinely cool that Anthony Rizzo is this team's best hitter right now, considering how much I enjoyed him with the Cubs, and how much I stuck with him the last few years. I love that he's becoming a Yankee hero, and I hope he keeps it up.
Hopefully we get a fun game out of this one, and hopefully the Yanks don't let us down.
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