After winning a series against the Royals on Wednesday, it’s time for the Yankees to welcome another opponent to the Bronx for an important series. Starting tonight, the Yankees will face the Red Sox in four games.
For one thing, this series is as significant as any Yankees-Red Sox meeting. It’s the last time the two rivals will meet in the regular season, and Boston holds a 5-4 lead.
That being said, it’s important for both teams in their respective playoff races. The Yankees would love to get a couple of wins to go into next week’s West Coast tour with some lead over the Orioles. Boston may still be in the playoff race, but they’re running out of time as they enter this series a couple of games behind the final Wild Card Twins. They’ve been a bit shaky lately, having recently lost five games in a row. Both teams would really like to come out of this series with a series win for reasons that go beyond any rivalry.
Before things really get started tonight, let’s take a look at the pitchers’ expected duels in the next few days.
Thursday: Nestor Cortes vs. Cooper Criswell (7:15 p.m. ET)
After going to the bullpen in his last appearance and backing up Clarke Schmidt, Cortes is back in the rotation at least for this go-round. He was strong out of the bullpen in that appearance, although he wasn’t comfortable in that role. If he wants a starting role in the future and in the playoffs, he’ll need to do well in this game considering he was briefly the underdog due to the ups and downs of his season.
Criswell has generally been above average in his role as a swingman for the Red Sox this year. This season, he has appeared in each of those roles once against the Yankees, allowing two runs in five total innings. Since the beginning of August, however, Criswell has a 4.70 ERA and a 5.05 FIP.
Friday: Clarke Schmidt vs. TBD (7:05 p.m. ET)
Schmidt returned to the mound from injury on Sunday against the Cubs and was generally good. He threw 4.2 scoreless innings, allowed two hits and a walk, and struck out nine of 10 batters in a row. While the Yankees obviously want to win this game, a lot will depend on how well Schmidt really recovers.
The Red Sox have not confirmed a starter for Friday, but it will most likely be Tanner Houck. Boston’s top player recently missed a start, and the Red Sox said he “didn’t recover well enough” after his last appearance. If he’s not fully ready to play that night, the next option appears to be Richard Fitts, who was one of the young players traded for Alex Verdugo last winter.
Saturday: Gerrit Cole vs. Brayan Bello (1:05 p.m. ET)
If you ignore the Mets’ two starts, Cole has looked a lot like Cy Young Gerrit Cole this season. Since the start of August, he has a 1.58 ERA and a 2.45 FIP, limiting hitters to a .558 OPS. One of the few other questionable starts was against Boston in July. That day, he allowed four runs in 4.1 innings but managed eight strikeouts.
Overall, Bello’s numbers for the year are a little below average. However, he has been good against the Yankees both this year and throughout his career. In 40.2 career innings against the Bombers, he has a 2.66 ERA.
Sunday: Carlos Rodón vs. Kutter Crawford (1:35 p.m. ET)
Since his June/July slump, Rodón has been solid, with some ups and downs in between. There have been more ups than downs recently, as he has a combined 28 strikeouts in his last three games. However, it was a start against Boston on June 15 that really started his troubles, as he allowed five runs in five innings that day after starting with a sub-3.00 ERA that day.
Crawford has made three starts against the Yankees this season. In the first two games, he held them to three runs in 13 innings, including seven shutouts on July 7. However, on July 27, the Yankees faced him and showed some good signs, knocking him out after five runs and 4.2 innings. Now we’ll see if the adjustments they seemingly made in that game come to fruition.
