Yankees Game 1 Preview

Funny how things work sometimes. The Yankees had to work hard to fend off the pesky Orioles all throughout September to win the American League East and now who are they facing to keep their season alive? That's right, those same pesky Orioles that knocked off the two-time defending AL Champion Texas Rangers. It all starts tonight in Baltimore at 6:07 ET on TBS and here are a few things to look for in Game 1.

CC Sabathia vs. Jason Hammel
This is the pitching matchup for tonight's game featuring the Yankees workhorse in Sabathia who went 0-2 against the O's this year and Hammel for the Orioles who beat the New York 1 out of 3 times. This matchup does favor the Yankees however because Hammel has only appeared in 1 postseason game with the Rockies in 2009, and Sabathia will be starting his 16th career playoff game, and 5-1 with the Yankees.

The Yanks need to jump on Hammel early and capitalize when they have runners in scoring position to put down the young and inexperienced Oriole team right away. Sabathia, on the other hand, needs to do exactly the opposite. He needs to dominate the early innings to limit any hope early on.

Mark Reynolds vs. Robinson Cano
Mark Reynolds absolutely killed the Yankees this year with the long ball. Reynolds hit 7 home runs with 14 RBI's while hitting .294. His numbers for the year were 23 homers, 69 RBI's, and batting .221, so obviously you can see Reynolds rises to the occasion against the Yankees.

Cano is the hottest hitter in baseball, plain and simple. He is batting .615 (24-39) since September 25th with 3 homers, 7 doubles, and 14 RBI's. Cano will need to get big hits for the Yankees when he is presented with an opportunity because Orioles manager Buck Showalter will limit those opportunities for Cano any way he can. Nick Swisher, who is batting 5th tonight and behind Cano for the Yanks will also need to prove that he can hit and protect Cano. If not, Cano will get intentionally walked countless times.

Yankees in Baltimore
For some reason the MLB decided it would fair if the worse teams received home field for the first 2 games of the Divisional Series and the team with the better record would get home field for the last 3 games of the series. This means New York still technically has home field advantage because if the series goes all 5 games the Yankees will host 3 of them.

That being said, it is very likely that the series does not go that far and those first two games are very crucial. The set-up should be 2-2-1 like every other year instead of this year's format which is tailored for first round upsets.

Despite this rule making me furious, the Yankees still were better in Baltimore against the Orioles than at home in New York. They went 6-3 in Baltimore, as opposed to 3-6 at home. Still, the Orioles haven't made the playoffs in 14 seasons, you have to imagine the city is excited and will create a hectic environment tonight.

Something will have to give, and I'm expecting nothing less than a classic gritty October playoff baseball game. Go Yankees!