Betfair.net

This is the battle of the back-ups, as Alfredo Aceves subs for the injured Chien Ming Wang for the New York Yankees while Anthony Swarzak replaces the ailing Kevin Slowey for the Twins. Both these pitchers have largely been in the bullpen this year, with Swarzak getting a few starts back in late May before returning to the pen.

When Kevin Slowey hit the disabled list in early July, the Twins had no problems bringing Swarzak back to the rotation, simply based on his last start June 13th where he pitched 7 innings, giving up only 4 hits and no runs at Wrigley against the Cubs. It will be the first time he faces the powerful New York Yankees on Thursday and, so far, home hasn't been all that sweet to him. Although the sample is tiny, his Home ERA is 4.76, compared to a solid 2.53 on the road.

On the flip side, he does fare better during the day where his ERA is 2.08 compared to 5.52 at night. Still, it will be a daunting task to ask him to contain the Yankee bats. Alfredo Aceves is not going to have it easy either with the strong Twins line up. However, he's been very impressive this season out of the pen, boasting a 5-1 record with a 2.02 ERA in a total of 40 innings pitched. The Yankees like those numbers and therefore decided to give him the spot start, but he will be limited to about 65 pitches, so any early struggles and the team will not hesitate to hit their pen quickly.

But again, while the sample might be small, two of his 5 victories this year have been against the Twins, although he's pitched a total of 2 innings against them. This has the makings of a very high scoring affair and confidently predicting the winner is near impossible, despite the Yankees having a stronger club on paper. This is why I like this game. You throw the odds, the trends and everything else out the window and let two young, unproven replacement pitchers go at it. Though it's probably safe to take the over!