Last night was a good night for the Yankees, seeing the team put up five runs in the first paired with a good Gerrit Cole outing to cruise to a 9-2 win over the Diamondbacks. The club also picked up a game on the Rays as the AL East leaders dropped the opener of their series to the Red Sox. Tonight, the Yankees have two goals: get the win to stay in a hypothetically-competitive division race (all but necessary since Tampa Bay avenged the loss with a 2-1 win over Boston this afternoon), and build out a little more breathing room in the Cy Young race.<\/p>\n
Dylan Cease had his worst start of the year on Friday for the Blue Jays, going just 2.2 innings and walking six. He and today\u2019s Yankee starter Cam Schlittler have had a heavyweight bout atop the Cy leaderboard all year, and while Cam\u2019s pulled away a bit in recent weeks, he can start to put the finishing touches on his case tonight. He hasn\u2019t allowed more than one earned run in a start since August 3rd (!!), making us all maybe expect a bit too much from the righty who can seemingly do no wrong. Schlittler has thrown 45 innings across those aforementioned seven starts, so he\u2019s not a five-and-fly guy, and his 1.00 ERA in that stretch is just\u2026a farce.<\/p>\n
Brandon Pfaadt is having the best season of his young career, with a 3.77 ERA and 4.06 FIP that are both significant steps forward after a pretty lost 2025. He doesn\u2019t strike many men out though, and a 45 percent ground ball rate means heavy sinking fastballs in the zone. There will be pitches to hit from Pfaadt; you just need to be able to elevate them.<\/p>\n