The New York Yankees are gearing up to face off against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at 7:40 PM. They will host Jameson Taillon on the mound as their starter in the first game of a three-game series.
Taillon is coming off a master-class performance in his last outing against the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up two hits, and one earned run over 8.0 innings. In fact, Jameson has allowed just two runs over his last three appearances, striking out 18 batters over 23 total innings. This season, he has been one of the team’s top starters, sitting with a 2.30 ERA over 58.2 innings.
The 30-year-old veteran is coming off a tough 2021 campaign, battling several injuries. This year, he’s been mostly healthy, recording some of the best numbers in his entire career. His strikeouts per nine are down slightly, but he’s walking the fewest amount of batters at 0.77 per nine. He’s also giving up the fewest amount of home runs in his career at 0.61 per nine.
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The Yankees will get to see a few familiar faces this week:
The Yankees will see two familiar faces in Minnesota. Earlier this past off-season, general manager Brian Cashman executed a trade with Minnesota sending Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela out west in exchange for Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Josh Donaldson, and Ben Rortvedt.
Sanchez is hitting .229 with seven homers and 27 RBIs this year. Offensively, he’s been inconsistent for Minnesota, getting on base at a 29% clip, down from 30.7% last year. He’s walking at about half the rate he did in 2021 with the Yankees, indicating his play has worsened in some areas.
In the Minnesota infield, the Yankees will get a look at former third baseman Gio Urshela. Urshela is having a solid 2022 campaign, hitting .268 with five homers and 23 RBIs over 49 games. His 14.1% strikeout rate is the lowest it’s been since 2017 with Cleveland. In fact, he’s getting on base 32.6% of the time, up from 30% last year. While his slugging capabilities have decreased slightly, the Twins are actively getting him on baseball frequently, which is a positive.
Defensively, Gio remains a strong player, playing 393 innings at the hot corner for the Twins this year. Urshela has four errors and a .965 fielding percentage, up a few percentage points from 2021.
This should be a competitive contest for the Yankees since the Twins host a 32–24 record and are the first-place team in the AL Central.