At 7:05 pm tonight, at the Stadium in the Bronx, the New York Yankees will open a four-game set with it’s traditional rival Boston Red Sox. Without fans in the stands, the excitement level, is a little less than normal, but any games with the Red Sox are one of the most popular events in sports. The Yankees met the Red Sox back on July 30 for a three-game set, that the Yankees swept 19-10. This game tonight will be the first time that Gerrit Cole will face the Red Sox in a New York Yankee uniform.
The Boston Red Sox have not at the time of this writing announced who will be pitching tonight. We do know that it won’t be Perez, Godley, Hart, or Eovaldi, outside of that it could be almost anyone. The Red Sox pitching rotation is in an absolute mess. The Red Sox are coming off a loss where the Tampa Bay Rays scored 17 runs off them. Their bullpen isn’t very good either.
From the Red Sox 2018 championsip year, they have lost pitchers Hector Velazquez to the Astros, Rick Porcello to the Mets, Drew Pomeranz to the Brewers, and David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That leaves Chris Sale who is on the IL, Eduardo Rodriguez that is out for the year with heart issues, resulting from a bout with the coronavrus. The only remaining quality pitcher, from that year is Nathan Eovaldi, who will be starting Saturday’s matchup with James Paxton.
The New York Yankees will start ace Gerrit Cole. The Yankees have won all four of the games started by Cole. The surprise is that the Yankees have not really seen the dominate Cole from last year’s postseason, when he was an Astro. Cole has stuggled a bit in all of his starts, but being the quality pitch that he is, he has made the necessary pitches to keep the Yankees on the winning side of the ledger. In his last outing against the Tampa Bay Rays he went 4.2 innings and 107 pitches in the 8-4 Yankee win.
The Yankees are coming off their third sweep of the season, sweeping the Orioles, the Red Sox, and the Atlanta Braves. On Saturday the Yankees will again meet the Red Sox when James Paxton will face Nathan Eovaldi. On Sunday J.A. Happ is scheduled to start, however with as poorly as he has been pitching it might become a opener game.
The Yankees will start tonight’s matchup without Giancarlo Stanton who has a grade one hamstring injury. They may also start out without slugger Aaron Judge who was pulled earlier in the week with lower muscle tightness. Manager Boone said he thought that Judge would return on Friday night. Even if he doesn’t, Clint Frazier, filling in for Judge, has already made his presence known by, going 3-3 Wednesday night, only a triple short of the cycle. He hit a 400′ long shot into the visitors bullpen in his first at-bat.
Projection: Yankees 7-2.