NEW YORK -- Inside Pitch is in the house at the new Yankee Stadium for Game One of the ALCS between the Yankees and Angels and it features those two words all baseball writers dread: Weather permitting.
Right now at least, the weather will permit the show to go on. A little more than four hours before the first pitch, there is no rain and a light breeze with cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-40s. The tarp is not on the field and screens and cages are set up for batting practice so we'll see how things go for our scheduled 7:57 p.m. start (on FOX).
The forecast has improved a little for tonight with a 50 percent chance of scattered showers but it's getting much worse for Game Two tomorrow night, with the latest Weather.com advisory calling for a 90 percent chance of rain and at least a half-inch or more. Ugly.
6:20 update: All systems go for Game One. The breeze has calmed down and still no rain. The only surprise in the starting lineup is Nick Swisher batting eight for the Yankees. It's a surprise because he's just 5 for 43 in his career against Angels starter John Lackey. One of those hits was a home run and manager Joe Girardi said video of the last two years showed several hard-hit balls by Swisher off Lackey so they went with him. No other major news pregame. Lots of chatter about the cold, about tomorrow's weather. We're just in a holding pattern on that one.
I'll start an in-game thread in the 7:30 range, when Fox comes on the air. First pitch, remember, is set for 7:57.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
tagged
ALCS | Yankees
