It’s a dark and troublesome world, but I’m trying my best to find points of light and optimism. Today, that point is that if you were worried about blowout wins skewing the Yankees’ run differential, they’ve done their best to let that equal out the last two games. The Tigers have thumped New York in the first two games of this set — although more accurately they’ve thumped the New York bullpen — and all the Yankees can do at this point is salvage one game and try to keep their heads above water
in the AL East race.
It’s a little earlier in his career than we might have expected for Cam Schlittler to be The Stopper, but the fireballing righthander has a chance to establish himself as just that tonight. Schlittler has become must-watch TV in his young career, despite hitting a pretty hard speedbump last weekend against Toronto. Cam didn’t get out of the second inning on Friday, but one bad outing added 0.6 runs to his ERA on the year, an indicator of how well he’s pitched and hopefully a sign that the nine good starts are more his talent level than the one dreadful one.
Meanwhile, Detroit opted to give Cy Young favorites Tarik Skubal an extra day of rest, handing the ball to opener Tyler Holton. He has a 3.80 ERA across 68.2 innings, but a FIP that’s a full run higher, driven by a low strikeout rate and a problematic home run rate. The Tigers’ bullpen is the soft underbelly of the likely AL Central champions, but the Yankees haven’t exactly leapt at the opportunities facing the relief corps so far this series. That needs to change or the club will be staring down a sweep at the most important part of the schedule.
Two-way phenom Austin Slater will lead off after his heroic relief appearance last night, and José Caballero gets his second straight start at shortstop while the Yankees figure out what Anthony Volpe is capable of.
How to Watch:
Location: Yankee Stadium — Bronx, NY
First Pitch: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV broadcast: YES | FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, MLB Network (out-of-market only)
Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY) | 97.1 The Ticket (DET)
Online stream: Gotham Sports App, MLB.tv (out-of-market only)
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