The New York Yankees will start the completion of their longest homestand of the season with game one at Yankee Stadium against the Washington Nationals. The Yankees have been playing outstanding baseball that has gotten them out of the AL East cellar. They are one game above .500, after going 7-3 in their last ten games. The Yankees have played most of their games against AL East opponents, but tonight they will play their second inter-league game.
The Yankees are coming off a series win of the Houston Astros. They were hoping to sweep the series, but although ace Gerrit Cole although he left the game after six innings with the lead in the game, the bullpen that is usually great, failed miserably giving up five runs over four innings of work. The New York Yankees are now going into a three-game set with the Nationals, a team that won the World Series just two years ago. The Nationals team, the Yankees, will face, although some of the names are the same, they are not the same team that won that World Series. They ended the last season at the bottom of the NL East.
Today, May 7th, 7:05 pm.
Tonight at the Stadium, the Yankees’ Jameson Taillon will face the Nationals’ Patrick Corbin. After two years of not winning a game, Taillon got his first victory in his last outing against the Detroit Tigers. Taillon pitched five innings of one-run ball while striking out 8 Tigers. Patrick Corbin is well known to the Yankees; they have faced him twice during his career. Although both games were no-decisions for Corbin, he kept his ERA down to just 1.35 across the two games. I give the edge to the New York Yankees.
Corbin started the season horribly for the Nationals; he gave up 15 earned runs in his first two season games. He has pitched better since then, lowering his ERA to 8.10. His best outing was his last against the Marlins, when he gave up 2 runs over 7 innings. Tonight’s game will be broadcast on the YES Network, MASN in the Baltimore Washington market, and on MLBN out of market.
Saturday, May 8th, 1:05 pm.
Saturday’s matinee at Yankee Stadium will feature the Yankees’ Corey Kluber (2-2) facing the Nationals’ Max Scherzer (2-2). Corey Kluber is coming off his best-pitched game of the season and the AL pitcher of the week after going 2-0 off the Orioles and Tigers. In his last start, the 2 time Cy Young award winner got a career-high 13 swings and misses on his changeup. A very slight edge goes to the Nationals.
Max Scherzer is a thirteen-year veteran pitcher that hasn’t had a losing season since 2010. He has had two 20+ winning seasons. The 36-year-old has a career record of 177-95. He is a strikeout king. This season he has 39 strikeouts in five games and is coming off a complete-game win over the Miami Marlins. The game will be televised on the YES Network, MASN, and MLBN out of market.
Sunday, May 9th, 1:05 pm.
Sunday’s game is the most difficult to predict the outcome; much has to do with which Domingo German shows up. German (2-2 ERA 4.32) will face the Nationals’ Joe Ross (2-2 ERA 4.39). Between his 2 starts against the Orioles and Cleveland, German went 12 innings scoreless, but in his last outing, he went only five innings giving up three earned runs; in a game, the Yankees eventually won over the Astros.
Joe Ross has never faced the New York Yankees before and has not experienced Yankee Stadium and its fans. He is 3-2 in interleague games in his career. So far this season, the Nationals had lost 3 of his 5 starts, including his last start against the Atlanta Braves, when he went 5.1 innings giving up 2 earned runs while striking out 3 and walking 2 Braves. The Sunday matinee will be televised on the YES Network, MASN, and MLB out of market.