"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

What else could Ben Franklin have been referring to here if not the opportunity to pick up a game on the Red Sox? On the same day Justin Verlander asphyxiated the Sox lineup, the Yankees will tumble into the West Coast with a handful of ostensible, though not significant, injuries plaguing their lineup.

They'll likely face the Mariners tonight without the able bats and/or gloves of Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Alex Rodriguez, who all got banged up to varying degrees on the tail end of their explosive 6-1 homestand. Derek Jeter was listed as day to day, but Peter Abe reassures us our boy is sans limp.

Everyone's favorite two-ton-gun CC Sabathia (12-7, 3.76) faces everyone's favorite 2006 fantasy sleeper pick Ian Snell (2-8, 5.42). While Snell has some promising starts to his credit, in 2009 he's been about as emotionally stable as Meg Griffin and apparently pouted through "performance-dehancing" unhappiness while on the Pirates.

Maybe a change of scenery will do him some good, but based on his last start with his new club, Snell's "nerves" aren't going to be quelled any time soon (6 walks in 1 1/3 IP, 3 runs). The Yanks may be playing with a few chinks in their armor, but at least they're still sporting armor. I don't envy Snell tonight, who most likely knows as well as anyone else in the league that an unhealthy Yankee lineup can still paralyze a hurler with fear more than most healthy lineups.

The Yanks'll have to tailor their approach once again, and I wouldn't be surprised if this means Mark Teixeira lighting it up for a multi-homer game. No one goes the extra mile quite like him.