Over the weekend, the Yankees went into Toronto and picked up a very nice series victory. Despite still missing Aaron Judge, they took two out of three over the Blue Jays, using big ninth inning homers from Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice to take both games. Now, they’re set to return home for another series that, unexpectedly, features a battle of division leaders.
Starting tonight, the Chicago White Sox are in town for a three-game series. The White Sox have been notoriously bad over the last couple
seasons, including a record-setting awful 2024. Yet, they’ve gotten off to a winning start to 2026, coming in at 38-32, tied with the Guardians for the AL Central lead. Offseason signing, Munetaka Murakami — who is on the injured list and will be absent for this series — has lived up to the hype, while they’ve gotten impressive performances out of a bunch of their young and upcoming talent, including last week when Braden Montgomery hit a walk-off homer in his MLB debut.
Can the White Sox continue their winning run to the season this week against the Yankees? Let’s take a look at what the pitching matchups have in store over the next couple days.
Tuesday: Gerrit Cole vs. Davis Martin (7:05 pm ET)
Cole is coming off the first meh start of his return so far. Against the Guardians last week, he was knocked out after just four innings. He only gave up two runs, it just came on five hits and two walks, driving up his pitch count for a guy still early in his return from Tommy John surgery. Between said surgery and just schedule luck, this will be the first time he’s faced the White Sox since August 2023, when Chicago actually got to him for four runs in seven innings.
Martin has been the ace of Chicago’s unexpected run, coming into this game with a 2.41 ERA and a 2.39 FIP in 13 starts. He also has a league-leading nine pitching wins, which no one would’ve guessed coming into the season. Those numbers are actually a little bit up from where he had been at the end of May, as he gave up six runs in 4.2 innings against the Twins in his first start of June. However, Martin responded by shutting out the Braves for six innings in his most recent appearance.
Wednesday: Carlos Rodón vs. Anthony Kay (7:05 pm ET)
In the second game of the series, Rodón will face off against his former team. His return from injury a couple weeks ago saw him get off to a rocky start, but he’s settled into somewhat of a groove of late. In his last four starts, Rodón has a 2.35 ERA in 23 innings. He’s still been walking a bit more batters than you would like, but he’s generally been able to work around them.
Kay is a former Mets first round pick who they traded to the Blue Jays for Marcus Stroman all the way back in 2019. Since then, he’s been around the majors a bit and in Japan for two years, before landing with the White Sox this past winter. With a 100 ERA+, he’s been about perfectly league average so far this season, although a 5.23 FIP suggests that he could be gettable.
Thursday: Ryan Weathers vs. Sean Burke (7:05 pm ET)
He’s still in the rotation for now, but recent starts suggest that Weathers will be headed for the bullpen whenever the Yankees get Max Fried back. Weathers has given up seven home runs over his last three starts, allowing a total of 16 runs in 17 innings across them.
Burke is another White Sox starter that has been right around league average so far this year. However, his numbers have come about with a bit of a slump following a good start to the year. Dating back to May 8th, Burke has a 5.82 ERA in seven starts. He’s been especially walk prone of late, issuing 10 free passes over his last two games.
