Game 88: Shane Greene's big break

Fresh off of a series win against the Minnesota Twins this past weekend at Target Field, taking three of four games, the Yankees will make a stop in Cleveland for a four-game series against the Indians, starting tonight at Progressive Field, before heading into the All-Star break with a series in Baltimore.

The Yankees are 3-3 so far in July, and with the offense scoring 22 runs in their three wins over the weekend, this would seem like a good time to claim another series win as they're going up against the third place Indians this weekend.

Cleveland just took two of three games from the Kansas City Royals over the weekend; they've won four of their last five games overall, rebounding from having lost eight straight before that.

The Yankees' pitching staff isn't in the best shape right now, and the bullpen has been taxed lately. It'll be going up against an Indians lineup that has scored the 9th most runs in the league this season, and 6th overall in the American League.

Tonight's lineup against Cleveland:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Brian McCann
2B Brian Roberts
RF Ichiro Suzuki
3B Kelly Johnson
C Francisco Cervelli

* Carlos Beltran out of Yankees lineup with swelling in right knee. He will be seen by a doctor later today.

Pitching matchup preview:

With Vidal Nuno on his way to Arizona, the Yankees had nobody up to make tonight's start, so they recalled right-hander Shane Greene from Triple-A Scranton to make the first start of his Major League career this evening.

This'll be Greene's third time up with the big league club this season, but it'll only be his second appearance in a game. His only relief outing of the season was against the Boston Red Sox back on April 24 when he allowed three unearned runs in one-third of an inning.

With the rotation on shambles -- the Yankees added Brandon McCarthy on Sunday to help patch things up -- this'll be a good chance for Greene to show the Yankees what he can do, similar to the way Chase Whitley succeeded in his first handful of starts.

The Indians will have their ace heading into the season, Justin Masterson, on the mound tonight to open up this series. Masterson, though, hasn't been great lately, allowing eight earned runs in seven innings over his last two starts.

If there is anything to look forward to tonight if you're an Indians fans, it's that Masterson is 3-1, 3.54 ERA in eight starts at Progressive Field this season.

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