Chad Jennings

cjennings@lohud.com

Two days before rain washed out today's season opener, Yankees manager Joe Girardi settled on his Opening Day lineup, and Brett Gardner wasn’t in it. Aaron Hicks was scheduled to start in left field against Astros ace Dallas Keuchel, and Hicks will be in the lineup for Tuesday’s makeup game.

“If I had looked a little better against him, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about that,” Gardner said. “I can handle that. It’s kind of on me. If I want to play every single day and not come out of the lineup, play a little better.”

Gardner was in the lineup against Keuchel for last year’s Wild Card game and struck out three times.

“We didn't have a lot of success off of him last year so I thought I would try something different, is really what it came down to,” Girardi said.

Acquired this offseason, Hicks hit .307 with an .870 OPS against left-handers last season, and he is expected to be a Yankees lineup regular against lefties, playing in place of either Gardner or Jacoby Ellsbury. Last year, Ellsbury sat out the Wild Card game against Keuchel. On Tuesday, he’ll be hitting leadoff.

“We had a lot of trouble with Keuchel, so I’m changing it up a little bit to see if it works out,” Girardi said. “That was my decision.”

Here's the planned Opening Day batting order:

Jacoby Ellsbury CF Aaron Hicks LF Alex Rodriguez DH Mark Teixeira 1B Carlos Beltran RF Brian McCann C Chase Headley 3B Starlin Castro 2B Didi Gregorius SS

TANAKA ON REGULAR REST

The Yankees will not adjust their rotation in the wake of today’s rain out. Masahiro Tanaka will simply move back a day to start the opener on Tuesday.

Although the Yankees have been extremely cautious with Tanaka, Girardi said he currently plans to keep Tanaka on turn to make his second start on regular rest Sunday in Detroit. Without the rain out, Tanaka was expected to get an extra day of rest before each of his first four starts this season.

“He's going to have to do it (on normal rest),” Girardi said. “It's part of our schedule and part of what we're going to have to deal with. He's going to have to do it.”

Because of concerns about Tanaka's health, and because of potential cold conditions in Detroit this weekend, would the Yankees consider having Ivan Nova make a start? Nova is still stretched out, and pitching him would let Tanaka make his next start against the division rival Blue Jays in a domed stadium.

"I haven't really thought about that," Girardi said. "I'd like to get through these three days and see where we're at. You're asking a hypothetical which I'm not a big fan of as everyone knows. Who knows, we might need Nova. You might need him for four or five innings on Wednesday, Thursday or something. To really think that far ahead doesn't make any sense."

HEADLEY EXPECTS TO PLAY

After missing the final two exhibition games because of a stomach bug, third baseman Chase Headley was supposed to be in Monday’s lineup, and he expects to play on Tuesday. He believes the illness was nothing more than food poisoning.

“I’m here,” he said, while chugging Gatorade. “I’m alive. Good to go.”

BOTTOM OF THE ORDER

By hitting Didi Gregorius ninth, Girardi has created a lineup that will -- on most days -- have three straight lefties: Gregorius, Ellsbury and Gardner. Has there been any considering toward flipping Gregorius and Starlin Castro to break up those lefties?

"Probably don’t have any plans to do that," Girardi said. "Maybe my mind will change a little bit, but our left-handers are used to hitting left-handers. They face them, so we’ll see. ... Maybe when you give Castro a day off you put a (Ronald) Torreyes in between them, that sort of thing, but your initial thought when building a lineup: yes, you don’t want lefties stacked, but you also try to beat the starter and knock the starter out. You’re not trying to get in a 2-2 game in the eighth inning. So you can look at it from a lot of different ways. So we’ll see how it works."

SHREVE IN THE SEVENTH

With Aroldis Chapman suspended, the Yankees have bumped Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances into the roles they had last season as the closer and primary setup reliever. As for the seventh inning, the Yankees no longer have Justin Wilson, but they expect another lefty to step into that job.

"(Chasen) Shreve had a lot of success for us last year," Girardi said. "I have confidence in (Johnny) Barbato, I have confidence in (Kirby) Yates, so we’ll look at some match ups in there, but Shreve was a guy that I would use at any point there."

MITCHELL SEEING SPECIALIST TODAY

Today is Bryan Mitchell's scheduled visit to a foot/ankle specialist in North Carolina.

The Yankees know they'll be without Mitchell for quite a while, but today could determine whether he needs surgery. Girardi said he expects some sort of announcement about Mitchell's status later today, though I would think it might also wait until tomorrow.