A baseball season is long and arduous, so individually, 7-10 day stretches don’t define seasons. Every year, teams that will go on to contend for a World Series will look ghastly for a time, while teams in the cellar will mysteriously get hot. Baseball is unique in this way, as the season is long enough to absorb such body blows in either direction, while they can define seasons in other sports (except if you’re the Knicks, who randomly had a 2-9 stretch before getting back on the horse).
While many
in the AL East are scuffling, the Yankees enter their fourth series of the season with a strong 7-2 record and open up a series against the (Sacramento) Athletics at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
Cam Schlittler will get the ball in his third game of the season, looking to continue a hot start. The 25-year-old has been almost untouchable through two starts, tossing 11.2 shutout innings without a walk and 15 strikeouts with his unorthodox fastball-heavy approach. After mixing in his sweeper, curveball, and slider more in his debut season, Schlittler is now throwing one of his three fastballs a baffling 89 percent of the time and has thrown a grand total of two sliders and zero sweepers so far. Will it bite him at some point? I’ll have to see it to believe it. He doesn’t seem fully built up yet, so expect somewhere between 80 and 90 pitches.
Former playoff foe Aaron Civale will make his second start of the year for the Athletics. If you remember the name, the 30-year-old was tasked with starting Game 5 of the 2022 ALDS for the Cleveland Guardians and lasted just a third of an inning in a losing effort. Since then, he’s bounced around from Tampa to Milwaukee to both Chicago clubs before signing a one-year, $6 million pact with the A’s this offseason. He allowed two runs in five innings in his lone start of the year in Atlanta thus far.
While one start isn’t nearly enough to tell what’s he up to this year, Civale has been more of a contact pitcher for much of his career, with his strengths as a pitcher being his ability to limit barrels and walks. He has at least six offerings to keep you off balance, including a near-equal mix of cutters and sinkers. His pitches play to both sides, so expect him to mix in his slider, curveball, and four-seamer to both sides, while his splitter is used against lefties. He’s historically been poor against the Yankees, last starting the series finale of last year’s Torpedo Bowl against the Brewers.
It’s a very usual lineup against a right-handed pitcher for the Yanks, with the exception of Amed Rosario batting seventh in the place of Ryan McMahon. Civale, for his career, has slight reverse splits, making the decision understandable given McMahon’s struggles.
2025 breakout star Nick Kurtz will lead off and look to get going out of a deep slump, followed by the red-hot Shea Langeliers and the lefty Tyler Soderstrom. Two 2025 All-Stars, Brent Rooker and Jacob Wilson, are also looking to break out of skids in the middle of the order, though Rooker is certainly feeling better after a two-homer Sunday that saw him walk off the Astros. Lawrence Butler, Max Muncy the Younger, Jeff McNeil, and defensive wizard Denzel Clarke round out the lineup.
How to watch
Location: Yankee Stadium — New York, NY
First pitch: 7:05 pm ET
TV broadcast: YES, NBCSCA
Radio broadcast: Talk 650 KSTE, A’s Cast (ATH), WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY)
Online stream: MLB.tv (out-of-market only), Gotham Sports App
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