Two World Series contenders coming off sweeps before the All-Star break will meet at Yankee Stadium for a three-game weekend set to begin the second half. There’s just one thing: the Dodgers weren’t the ones doing the sweeping in their last series at home against the Diamondbacks, suffering their first dusting of the season. It’s not the same because of the down period in between these two, but this scenario brings forward the age-old question: Is it actually a good thing to play a strong team coming off a difficult
period, or will they only be hungrier because of it? I guess we’ll find out.
Both teams took longer than we would’ve liked to announce their respective starters for this series, and the first of three matchups will pit Gerrit Cole and Roki Sasaki against each other. Acknowledging the differing levels of expectations for each of these starters, one might be right in affirming they’ve both been disappointing this season—Cole not as sharp coming off a lengthy absence as the Yankees would’ve liked and needed him to be, and Sasaki dealing with yet another choppy campaign trying to establish himself as a starter—taking one step forward, two steps back. Things may not always be this simple, but the fact that both of these starters have losing records playing for some of the winningest teams in each league is quite telling.
What has hurt both of these starters, in particular Sasaki, has been his inability to keep the ball in the yard. In his last two starts alone, Sasaki has given up five home runs—music to the ears of hitters for a lineup that leads baseball in home runs (142), the Yankees. Although lefties and righties have both taken him deep often enough, right-handers have given Sasaki far bigger problems overall, with an .886 OPS against him.
This will be the Dodgers’ first trip to the Bronx since embarrassing the Yankees in the Game 5 clincher of the 2024 World Series. Cole was obviously on the mound for that as well, his last start before undergoing Tommy John surgery, but the starting lineup behind him will be quite different than it was back then. Since Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are injured (they had an update on Judge today) and Anthony Volpe is on the bench (as Trent Grisham was back then), the only lineup overlaps are Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second and Austin Wells behind the plate. None of the relievers who follow him today are still on the team, either. So it’s quite a different group, but no doubt one still eager for the challenge of beating LA.
How to watch
Location: Yankee Stadium — Bronx, NY
First pitch: 7:05 pm ET
TV broadcast: YES, SportsNet LA, MLB Network (National)
Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280, Dodgers Radio AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Online stream: MLB.tv
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