Josh Johnson, who starts for the Marlins tonight, had an impressive rookie season under then-Marlins manager Joe Girardi in 2006. After working out of the bullpen in April, Johnson moved to the rotation in May and went 11-5 with a 3.14 ERA in his first 23 starts. Then, on September 12 of that year, Johnson’s start against the Mets was interrupted by an 82-minute rain delay, after which Girardi left the then-22-year-old right-hander in the game. Soon after, he developed elbow soreness. Johnson didn’t pitch for the Marlins again until mid-June of 2007, but after four starts, he was back on the DL and headed for Tommy John surgery.
Johnson finally returned to the Florida rotation last July and went 7-1 with a 3.61 ERA over the remainder of the season. Now 25, he enters tonight’s game against Girardi’s Yankees with a 6-1 record and 2.76 ERA on the season. The forecast calls for rain.
Johnson has been flat-out awesome this season. All but two of his starts have been quality starts. The Marlins are 11-3 when he takes the mound. His only two hiccups this season were a six-run outing against the Nationals back on April 18 and a four-inning outing against the Brewers on May 19 in which he held Milwaukee to two earned runs on three hits but walked five and left early due to a twinge in his pitching shoulder. Since then, he’s turned in six quality starts in six tries and completed at least seven innings in each of his last five starts, going the distance for the win over Toronto his last time out.
The Yankees counter with former Marlin A.J. Burnett, who was briefly a teammate of Johnson’s in 2005 (in fact, Johnson and Jeremy Hermida are the only remaining Marlins from that 2005 team and both were September call-ups that year). Burnett rebounded nicely from his failure in Boston his last time out, holding the Mets scoreless over seven innings while striking out eight. That was his seventh quality start in 13 tries for the Yankees. Burnett has put up consecutive quality starts just twice this season, once doing so by facing the same team, the Texas Rangers, in consecutive starts. A.J. has never faced the Marlins before, but he does have a career 3.20 ERA in Mrs. Arrllssberg Stadium.
Jorge Posada will catch Burnett tonight. Angel Berroa’s back at third base as the lineup repeats last night’s. Emilio Bonafacio is back at third for the Fish and hitting second.
