After a bad loss last night, the Blue Jays get right back to it this evening as they try to even up this four game series. Game two goes tonight, set for the same start time as last night at 7:07 ET.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Kevin Gausman will make his 9th start of the season, coming into today with a 2-3 record and a 3.38 ERA. His ERA is roughly in line with the 3.35 he put up last season, and once again it is a run higher than his FIP, coming into this start at 2.31. That 2.31 is currently a career best mark, with the biggest difference this year being a career best 12.56 K/9 rate. In the American League, his 67 strikeouts puts him in second place sitting 4 back of Shohei Ohtani, who struck out 5 last night.
This will be Gausman’s second matchup against the Yankees this year, coming off a gem in their first meeting. In New York back on April 23, Gausman threw 7 fantastic innings, allowing just 3 hits and no walks while striking out 11. He also got the win in that one, as the Jays beat the Yankees 5-1. By game score, the 87 he put in that game was the fourth highest of his career, and second only to a start in Tampa last August as a Blue Jay.
Yankees’ Starter
The Yankees turn to domestic abuser Domingo Germán for the second game of the series. Germán enters play with a 2-3 record and an even 4.00 ERA through 45 innings. His 4.37 FIP fits right in with his career numbers, thanks to a strikeout rate (9.40 per 9 innings), walk rate (3.00 per 9 innings) and home run rate (1.40 per 9 innings) that all fall quite closely to his career averages.
Like Gausman, Germán this will also be the second matchup of the season. Back in New York on April 21, Germán made it through 6 innings, giving up 4 runs on 5 hits while striking out 6. He walked 2 and gave up home runs to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Brandon Belt. He was saddled with the loss in that one, as the Jays won 6-1.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
With another hit last night, Brandon Belt is now hitting .244/.327/.400 (104 wRC+) on the season after his dreadful start. He has gotten to the point that he is getting pretty much regular playing time, starting every game since the Saturday game in Pittsburgh. If he keeps hitting as well as he has, he may force the Jays’ brass to swap him and Daulton Varsho in the batting order.
Also fully into the regular playing time now is Whit Merrifield, who has also gotten a start in every game dating back to that Pirates’ series. He continues to get on base, and when he does, he is getting back into his old tendencies of swiping a lot of bases. After 5 steals in the series against the Braves, Merrifield now sits in a tie for 7th in all of baseball with 12 on the season.
Alejandro Kirk went hitless again last night, and has now gone 15 plate appearances without reaching base. Couple his struggles with the greatly reduced playing time, and it’s pretty hard not to assume something is ailing him. Hopefully he’ll get it back soon, but in the mean time we’ll just more playing time out of Sunday’s hero Danny Jansen, who once again is likely to be behind the plate tonight.
Yankees’ Lineup
They came out mashing last night, hitting 3 home runs working and working the count well against a bad Manoah. Surprisingly on the season, they’re much more average this year, hitting .238/.312/.417 (102 wRC+) while sitting 13th at 4.63 runs per game. They’re well short of what some prognosticators expected, but they’ve relied pretty heavily on some unproven bats that haven’t performed.
Getting Aaron Judge back from injury a week ago was a big boost for them. In the 7 games since his activation, he has 4 home runs, is hitting .320/.455/.840 (232 wRC+), and the team is 5-2. He is going to be a big part of any success the Yankees find, and he is showing what he’s capable of right now.
Aaron Hicks made his first start yesterday after missing about a week with hip discomfort. He’s not likely someone the Yankees are too concerned about getting into the lineup, but he did pick up a single and a walk for them last night. With Harrison Bader healthy and in the lineup, Hicks isn’t likely to see a whole lot of playing time going forward.
Yesterday’s Heroes
Brenton Doyle went 3-4 with a pair of home runs and a double, driving in 3 runs on his way to taking home the Monster Bat award. His big day helped his Rockies to the 9-8 win over the Reds.
It was a wild one in LA last night, as the Twins and Dodgers played 12 innings, with a lot of back and forth before that. At least one run was scored in every half inning from the 7th inning on, with the exceptions of the bottom of the 9th, the 11th and the top of the 12th. The blanks in the top of the 11th and 12th was thanks to Phil Bickford, who took home the win after 3 innings of only allowing the Manfred Man to score in the 10th, but otherwise shutting things down. Thanks to that huge performance in extras, Bickford is the WPA King with a .546 mark, and the Dodgers walked things off in 12 for the 9-8 win over the Twins.
Michael Wacha carried a no-hitter into the 8th inning, losing it to the first batter thus ending his night. But even with that single, he is the Pitcher of the Day. He threw 7 shutout innings, allowing that single plus a walk and a bean ball while striking out 11. He picked up the win as well, as the Padres held on to beat the Royals 4-0.
Find the Link
Find the link between Aaron Hicks and Scott Bittle.