SURPRISE!!!

Surprise fans! I will actually be doing a dual live-blog tonight, covering both the Yanks and Mets games. Here's a little background on both games:

The Yankees begin the first of three games in Hot-lanta against the Braves. The last time these two teams played at Turner Field came back in 2000 where the Yanks took 2 of 3 games. The bigger history between the two squads is more focused on the match-ups between the teams in the 96 and 99 World Series. The Yankees won both, winning the first in 6 games and the second in 4. At this point, the only remaining players from either series on the current rosters are Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada for the Yanks and Chipper Jones for the Braves.

Tonight, it'll be Chien-Ming Wang for the Yanks against Tommy Hanson for Atlanta. Wang is still winless in 2009 and despite some improvement, is still not the pitcher he was the last two and a half seasons. The bigger story though, is that it was in a national league park last year (Minute Maid Park in Houston) where Wang hurt his foot running the bases and missed the rest of the season. He has yet to recover.

Hanson will be the seventh straight starter the Yanks have never seen before, so it would seem likely the Yanks are in trouble (they are 2-4 in those previous 6). Hanson is 2-0 this year with a 4.08 ERA. He poses a good test for the Yankees tonight to try and break their streak of poor offensive showings.

A couple of notes for the Yanks:
*CC Sabathia had some treatment today on his biceps and will thow a short bullpen session tomorrow. He's still sure he will start on Friday against the Mets.
*Johnny Damon is out of the starting line-up tonight as his calf is still sore. He did say, however, that he could pinch hit.
*Major League Baseball declined Joe Girardi's protest of Sunday's game against the Marlins. This was expected.
*Cody Ransom will re-join the team tomorrow, meaning someone's gotta go. If it's between Pena and Berroa, it no-doubt should be Berroa. He's useless on this team.

Onto the Mets, who play the second of four against the Cardinals at Citi Field. The Mets took last night's game 6-4 despite placing Carlos Beltran on the DL earlier in the day with a bruised knee. It was the first win against the Cards this season for the Mets, who were swept in St. Louis back on April 21st-23rd.

Livan Hernandez starts for the Mets tonight, looking to improve on his 5-1 record. He has been a pleasant surprise this year for the Mets and will look to avenge his only loss of the season, which came against the Red Birds back on 23rd of April. Hernandez was roughed up for 7 runs on 9 hits in just 4 1/3 innings, in a 12-8 loss.

The Cardinals will start Joel Pineiro, who is 5-8 on the year, but has an ERA of 3.76. He was a tough luck loser in his last start, giving up just 1 earned run (4 total) in 7 innings, but losing to the Tigers. Pineiro threw 8 solid innings against the Mets on 4/22 in a 5-2 win.

Some Mets notes:
*Fernando Martinez will get his first career start in centerfield tonight.
*Jose Reyes will take ground balls and batting practice today prior to the game. However, he still hasn't started any running program, which is key.
*John Maine will throw a bullpen tomorrow and could re-join the Mets on Saturday. Oliver Perez will also throw a bullpen session tomorrow.

Here are the line-ups for the games tonight:

New York Yankees (38-31, 4 GB of Red Sox)
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Melky Cabrera LF
Brett Gardner CF
Chien Ming Wang P

New York Mets (35-33, 1.5 GB of Phillies)
Alex Cora SS
Daniel Muprhy 1B
David Wright 3B
Fernando Tatis LF
Ryan Church RF
Omir Santos C
Fernando Martinez CF
Luis Castillo 2B
Livan Hernandez P

I'll have the live updates in another blog post. Enjoy Folks! I'm Excited!