Having wrapped up a road trip with a series victory in Baltimore, the Yankees are now set to return home this weekend. While every game at this stage of the season matters, the Blue Jays are coming to town seemingly rejuvenated in the playoff race.
These two teams met just last weekend in Toronto. The Blue Jays ended up taking two out of three, but all were close. (Seemingly every Yankees’ game is close because the offense can’t generate enough offense to pull away from teams.) With the AL a mediocre mess outside the top, Toronto has worked its way back into the playoff picture, so they’ll be hoping to continue what they did last weekend, while the Yankees will hope to try and keep cutting into their deficit to the Rays in the AL East standings.
Before things get going tonight, here’s a look at the expected pitching matchups for the next couple days.
Friday: Cam Schlittler vs. TBD (7:05 pm ET)
Obviously, Schlittler has been absolutely incredible this season and is on the shortlist for possible AL Cy Young winners. The only real negative about his year is the home/road splits, where he has a 3.95 ERA while allowing a .725 OPS in the Bronx, compared to 1.14 and .467 on the road. That being said, he is coming off an excellent outing at Yankee Stadium, striking out 11 Braves while allowing one run in seven innings. We shall see what this start has in store.
With Toronto having multiple starters on the IL on top of trading away Kevin Gausman at the deadline, they’ve been having some bullpen games, as we saw when the Yankees faced them last weekend. That’s presumably what the case will be in this game. The Yankees were held to just one run on four hits in that game, so it’s hard for them to fare much worse, should this indeed be a Johnny Wholestaff outing.
Saturday: Ryan Weathers vs. Dylan Cease (1:35 pm ET)
Injuries have prevented the likes of Weathers and Will Warren from exiting the rotation, as the Yankees still can’t get their theoretical A+ rotation all healthy at once. That being said, Weathers has absolutely held up his end of the bargain of late. Over his last four outings, he has a 0.69 ERA in 26 total innings. That included a one run in 7.1 innings against this very Blue Jays team last weekend.
We’ll miss a possible battle of Cy Young contenders by one day, as Toronto’s — Cease — will go on Saturday. The Yankees came out victorious in the game in total, but Cease certainly looked the part last Sunday. He struck out 10 Yankee hitters in 6.2 innings, allowing just two runs on two hits.
Sunday: Carlos Rodón vs. José Soriano (1:35 pm ET)
Rodón made his return from the IL earlier this week against the Orioles. He did well enough, going four innings while allowing one run on two hits, with the run coming on a homer. He did only throw 66 pitches, meaning he probably won’t be going for a full outing in this appearance either.
Despite trading Gauman, the Jays still picked up Soriano from the Angels to add to their rotation. For the season, he has a 3.29 ERA and a 3.78 FIP, with 2.76 and 3.88 marks since going to Toronto. The Yankees missed him when these teams met last weekend, and they also didn’t face him prior to the trade when he was still with the Angels. The last time the Yankees saw Soriano was last June, where he shut them out over seven frames.