The New York Yankees are now in a race in the AL East after a seven-game losing streak. They snapped the skid on Wednesday, but now need to mount a winning streak to regain some breathing room. The streak team will host another streaky squad over the weekend as the Texas Rangers come to town. Every time the Rangers get hot, they manage to fall back again. They were hot; now, they’ve lost three of four.
This series will be contested from Friday, June 23, 2017 through Sunday, June 25, 2017 at Yankee Stadium in New York. MLB Network will carry all three games in this series for those outside the local television markets.
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Pitching Matchups
Friday’s pitching matchup would be even better if Masahiro Tanaka was pitching better, but he’ll matchup against the Rangers’ Yu Darvish for the first time in his career.
With Tanaka’s struggles, the match up still figures to be interesting, but for an entirely different reason than two elite Japanese pitchers matching up.
Tanaka was the sure thing in the Yankees’ rotation. Yet, here we are at the end of June and he’s 5-7 with a 6.34 ERA and 1.487 WHIP. He’s been incredibly hittable and is coming off a four-inning start against Oakland, allowing five runs on eight hits. He did strikeout 10, but also allowed three home runs.
The right-hander has allowed 21 home runs and seven over his last three games. His ball has flattened out, making it easier to square up.
The Yankees desperately need Tanaka to turn his fortunes around with Sabathia on the DL, but we haven’t seen signs of improvement. He’s lost. The Yankees insist he’s healthy, but with a known past tear in his elbow ligament, it’s hard to not think that’s playing a role.
While the Yankees hope and pray Tanaka turns it around, the Rangers will have their ace on the mound to set the tone for the series.
Darvish is just 6-5, but his 3.35 ERA and 1.128 WHIP show how good he’s been. He’s striking out 9.5 per nine innings and has been able to get out of jams when necessary. He does have a low BABIP against him which could rise and his FIP indicates he’s been a bit lucky. All of that said, he’s definitely in a much better place right now than Tanaka.
As the series progresses, the Yankees will turn to Luis Cessa and then Michael Pineda for the starts. The Rangers have Austin Bibens-Drkx and Nick Martinez lined up for the Saturday and Sunday start respectively.
Bibens-Dirkx and Cessa are both injury replacements. Neither are overly inspiring, but it should provide a rather even matchup. Bibens-Dirkx is coming off a five-run outing, lasting just five innings against the Jays. Cessa went four, giving up four runs in his first start of the season against the A’s in his last appearance.
As for the Sunday matchup, Martinez is pitching well in his last six games, throwing to a 3.60 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. He’s pitched to a 3.01 ERA in his career against the Yankees and has an ERA just north of two at Yankee Stadium as well. Overall, he’s been a bit above league average this year.
Pineda’s been even better than that. He’s 7-3 with a 3.56 ERA and 1.200 WHIP in 14 starts. The 28-year old has always been a streaky player, but we’ve seen more consistency this year. Plus, he’s allowed just a single run in each of his last two starts.
Offensive Breakdown
The Yankees’ recent slide has risen concern over New York’s ability to maintain their hot start, but most of the issues come in the pitching, not the offense.
New York is still first in runs scored throughout June and even in the loss on Thursday night, Aaron Judge continued to rake, slamming his 25th home run of the season.
The Yankees dropped Thursday’s game 10-5, scoring all five runs in the first two innings showing early thunder as they have all year.
Based on the stats, the Yankees’ lineup is dominating top to bottom. Even Chris Carter collected a couple hits from what has been a lackluster first-base position for the team this year. The first six in the lineup all have an OBP of at least .340 and that doesn’t even count Didi Gregorius who is batting .314 and has done nothing but hit and pick it at short since coming off the DL.
On the other side of the field, the Rangers’ offense lags the Yankees. Texas, however, is coming off an offensive explosion, hanging an 11 spot on the Jays Thursday night.
Carlos Gomez is swinging a hot bat, collecting three hits in the game while Shin Soo Choo is getting on base a .391 clip atop the order. All in all, however, Rougned Odor is still batting fifth despite a .215 average and .256 OBP. Joey Gallo is the big thumper, but is batting .197. Mike Napoli just smashed his 14th homer, but he’s batting only .201.
Bullpen Breakdown
Aroldis Chapman is back to solidify the pen and has been good in two outings since his return, throwing a pair of scoreless frames. He’s, however, yet to record a save as New York has been struggling.
Dellin Betances, however, is going through a rough spot. He’s some issues locating as well as normal and he gave up a pair of runs on Thursday. Tyler Clippard and Jonathan Holder had been key cogs in the pen as well and they, too, have had a few bad outings recently.
New York still has a much better pen than the Rangers based on the numbers, but it’s just not how the units are performing right now.
Texas’s pen came in on Thursday and slammed the door for three innings. Matt Bush has allowed some runs lately, but Jeremey Jeffress, Alex Claudio, Keone Kela and even Ernesto Frieri have hung a few scoreless frames a piece over the last week.
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