The New York Yankees are coming off a loss to the Miami Marlins last night that was a game given to the Marlins via four Yankee errors. The fourth Yankee error of the night in the bottom of the tenth inning allowed the Marlins to win the game. With two outs the Yankees failed to complete a run down to home plate when catcher Kyle Higashioka hit the batter on the base path allowing him to be safe at third. The Marlins then had a sac fly driving him in for the Yankee loss. To be fair to “Higgy,” it was only the second error of his career.
Other than one lousy pitch by Yankee starter J.A. Happ, the Yankee pitching was very acceptable in the game, but the Yankees could not string any hits together to take the lead in the game. What is most concerning is that neither Aaron Judge nor Giancarlo Stanton, since their return from the IL, have shown any power. The Yankees have now gone five games without a home run, the first time that has happened since 2016. If the Yankees don’t hit home runs, they seldom win.
The weather today should not be a factor; the game time (1:05 pm) temperature should be in the mid-’70s. The game will be played under partly sunny skies in what could be described as a pleasant autumn day. The game will be televised on the YES Network and Fox Sports Florida. Nationally, fans can watch the game on the MLB Network (out of market only).
Today at the Stadium, the Yankees will put their hopes on pitching sensation Deivi Garcia to bring back into the winning column. The Yankees have already clinched a spot in the postseason but will be watching Garcia today so see if they think he can contribute in postseason play. Garcia is 2-2 with an ERA of 4.88. Garcia has shown brilliance at times since his major league debut, and the Yankees have won three of his five starts. However, his last start was not good, giving up six earned runs in just three innings, against the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees will face the Marlin’s Trevor Rogers, who is 1-2 with an ERA of 6.84. Rogers is coming off a loss to the Atlanta Braves. He has 35 strikeouts in his past 25 innings of play. The rookie Rogers seldom goes deep into games. In his last three starts, he has failed to go more than four innings. Neither of these teams has faced the opponent’s pitcher.
Although the New York Yankees would certainly like to win these last two games of the season, for the Yankees they are relatively meaningless as last night they lost any ability to gain home-field advantage in the Wild Card round, which presently will be with the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
On the other hand, the Yankees would want to win both of these games so they will have some momentum going into the series with the Twins.
Sunday, at 3:05 the Yankees will host the final game of the regular season against the Marlins at the Stadium. That game will likely be a bullpen game, with Monday off before the start of the three game Wild Card series.