AL East Showdown Yankees vs The Orioles
The New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles face off in an AL East showdown Tuesday through Thursday, and it has all the makings of a classic heated AL East Divisional battle. The three-game set starts tomorrow at the stadium, where the Yankees will try to gain some self-made separation from Baltimore in the divisional race, something they haven’t been able to do despite being the first team to 50 wins. This series will also allow them to regain some confidence from the fanbase, especially with their recent struggles offensively.
The Yankees have struggled to get meaningful offensive production in recent weeks from anyone not named Judge or Soto. Anthony Volpe has cooled off at the dish over the last 10 games and has struggled in some big spots. Volpe, who seemingly looked like a budding All-Star may still become one, but when it comes to performing in the clutch Volpe has struggled mightily this season.
Volpe got a lot of praise early in the season for getting on base and setting the table for Soto and Judge, but when the table is set for him, he’s not able to eat. Throughout the first two and a half months of the season, Volpe has hit .200 with runners in scoring position, a stat that is going to have to change if the Yankees want to win the World Series this season.
The Yankees are getting the reigning AL Cy Young award winner back for game two of the series on Wednesday, as Gerrit Cole is expected to rejoin the team after he missed the first two and a half months with edema in his throwing elbow. This is a tough matchup for Cole, as his first start comes against one of the more dynamic offensive teams in baseball. Cole figures to have a pitch count of about 90 pitches, so if the Yankees can get five solid innings out of Cole in his first start back, it would be a success.
The Baltimore Orioles sit at 47-24 coming into this series, two games behind the Yankees for first place in the Division and will be looking to be in first when the series concludes on Thursday. The Orioles took care of the Yankees in dominating fashion earlier on in the year taking three of four games from them and will for more of the same this week.
The Orioles are 8-2 in their last 10 games including a series win this past weekend against the National League’s best team, the Philadelphia Phillies. Led by Catcher Adley Rutschman (.289, 14 home runs, 53 RBIs) and SS Gunner Henderson (.274, 22 home runs, 49 RBIs), two players who are expected to be All-Stars this year and are looking like they could be the future of the American League, will look to really put major league baseball on notice this week. If Baltimore’s young core can come into the Bronx and sweep the Yankees or just look like the much better baseball team, panic may start to set in throughout the fanbase considering how the team has struggled with good competition this season.
As the series is set up right now the Yankees are missing out on Baltimore’s ace, Corbin Burnes. The Yankees will face Albert Suarez, Cade Povich, and Cole Irvin while countering with Nestor Cortes, Gerrit Cole, and Luis Gil. The pitching matchups for the whole series favor the Yankees, but if the Yankees bats stay quiet, it won’t matter how good their pitching is.
This is as big as it gets for a series in June, when it comes to evaluating where two of the top teams in the American League are, up until this point.