Two of the three least productive offenses in baseball walk into a ballpark. One of these offenses has the backing of the league’s best pitching staff. Who wins? The answer may shock you!
In a style once again reminiscent of the 2025 ALDS, the Yankees have allowed the Blue Jays to dance circles around them in two consecutive enervating losses. The Bombers—at least their position players—were the proverbial Wet Bandits, getting outsmarted by the exact same tricks over and over again. Did they forget
that this is what the Jays, who had been starting to click in the leadup to this series, do?
As punishment, the Yankees are now forced to go up against the only pitcher in the American League with a solid chance to unseat Cam Schlittler as Cy Young frontrunner. Dylan Cease will have a golden opportunity to cement a sweep against these moribund Bombers, while Ryan Weathers will look to continue a terrific personal stretch of pitching which has just as often as not gone wasted.
Weathers is achieving success by cutting back on his four-seam fastball, the chief culprit for his tendency to surrender oodles of homers in the first half. Now, he’s a far harder foe to slug against; the changeup, sinker, and sweeper have all been much trickier to generate lift on. The recent results have spoken for themselves: he’s allowed a maximum of one run in five consecutive starts.
Another quality outing from Weathers will mean nothing if his offense cannot put runs (plural) on the board. Forget that the lefty rarely gets run support; nobody is getting run support these days. The Yankee offense since the All-Star Break has a 75 wRC+, second worst behind the free-falling Angels. They’re hitting .203 as a team—dead last. They’re reaching base at just a .275 clip—also dead last. They’re striking out at the second-highest rate in MLB and they aren’t hitting for power either. Lacking Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger in the lineup is not an excuse for playing like headless chickens.
So again, what better time than to run into Dylan Cease?
Cease has himself only gotten better since the Midsummer Classic. In five second-half starts he has allowed just seven earned runs in 33 innings; a 1.91 ERA with 43 strikeouts and a .158 opponent’s batting average. Only Jacob Misiorowski has run a higher K rate than Cease’s 36.1 percent clip this year. He’s the last kind of pitcher a punchless lineup like New York’s wants to tangle with. But baseball is funny—maybe Cease loses his command, or maybe the Bombers start to play like the talented lineup they actually are, even without Judge and Bellinger.
Aaron Boone is shuffling the deck a bit with his starting nine today. Ben Rice, he of a .551 OPS since the Midsummer Classic, will hit leadoff for the first time since July 1st. He’ll be followed by the two Trade Deadline additions, Luis García Jr. and Heliot Ramos. Trent Grisham will clean up, with the rookie duo of Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. coming up afterward. Ryan McMahon, Austin Wells, and José Caballero—playing second base in lieu of the struggling Jazz Chisholm Jr.—comprise the bottom of the order.
How to watch
Location: Rogers Centre — Toronto, ON
First pitch: 1:37 pm ET
TV broadcast: YES, Sportsnet, TVA Sports
Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY), SN590 THE FAN (TOR)
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