Yankees Game 4 Preview

The job is not completed. The Yankees aren't in the Championship Series, it is still the Divisional Round. The Yankees still need to get a win either tonight or tomorrow, to push them through to the next round. Yes last night was an emotional come from behind thriller that looks to have shifted the momentum of the series back to New York, but the team still needs one more win.

Phil Hughes will get the ball tonight for the Yanks as he will try to pitch his team back to the ALCS for the first time since 2010. Joe Saunders will go for the Orioles, and unlike their last two pitchers, Saunders has playoff experience from his time with the Angels and Diamondbacks.

Here are a few keys to tonight's game.

Run Support
The Yankees will need to score some runs tonight with Hughes on the mound who gave up the second most home runs in the league this year with 35. New York hasn't exactly lit up the scoreboards this series scoring only 6 runs before the 9th inning during this series. (They scored 5 in the 9th in Game 1 and 2 in the 9th and extra innings yesterday in Game 3.)

Hughes did win his last start against the Orioles in Baltimore on September 7th giving up only two earned runs on six hits in 6 innings.

Shaking up the Lineup
After the gutsiest call of the century yesterday, manager Joe Girardi has a few more moves up his sleeve. Tonight Girardi has bumped the struggling Alex Rodriguez to the 5 spot and pushed Mark Teixeira up to the vacancy left by A-Rod in the 3 slot. This moves Nick Swisher out of the 5 hole and down the 6th place in the order. A-Rod may be forced to come up with a big hit tonight as he is Robinson Cano's insurance. Orioles manager Buck Showalter will be sure to walk Cano at least once, to see if A-Rod can pull through.

One more lineup move for the Yanks is Derek Jeter will be DH'ing tonight due to a bruised foot that he suffered in the first inning of last night's game. Jeter is a gamer so don't expect this to hold him back, but it does force Girardi to have to play Jayson Nix at shortstop tonight. Nix gets the advantage over Eduardo Nunez, whose glove has been a liability during his time in the majors.

No Raul?
After providing the heroics in last night's game twice, it wasn't enough to earn a start tonight for Raul Ibanez who is not in the Yankee lineup. Many fans will probably be upset with the decision and question it, but after giving it some thought I have one question. Do you really want to get rid of one of your top weapons? Having Ibanez off the bench gives the Yankees a legitimate pinch hitting option that will haunt every decision a manager makes down the stretch. Ibanez is a luxury that the Yankees should save for the later innings and simply substitute him in a big spot if needed.

Why mess with what works? It's like in the NBA with guys like James Harden of the Thunder and Jason Terry and Lamar Odom back when they were the top 6th men in the league. It makes no sense starting these guys and taking away from the spark that they are capable of providing. Ibanez is comfortable coming off the bench, clearly, hitting 2 pinch hit home runs in the past two weeks, along with another in the 12th last night.

First pitch is about twenty minutes away on TBS and as always GO YANKEES!!!!!