It’s late July and the American League East standings look a bit upside down from preseason projections.
That could make for an entertaining series when the New York Yankees visit the Baltimore Orioles for three games beginning Friday night.
As a boost for the Yankees, slugger Aaron Judge was activated off the injured list earlier Friday. He had been out since sustaining a ligament tear in his right big toe June 3.
“Everybody knows it’s going to be a tough week right here and we need to take care of business,” Yankees left fielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “… Really excited and we’ll see what happens.”
Baltimore fans will be thrilled to see their team, which has returned home in first place in the AL East. The Yankees sit in last place in the division.
The Orioles are home after going 4-3 on a seven-game road trip with stops at Tampa Bay and Philadelphia and before next week’s four-game series at Toronto. They dropped their two most-recent games in Philadelphia.
“Unfortunately, the sour taste in the mouth of losing the last two games, it can kind of change the way you feel about that,” Baltimore catcher James McCann said. “But at the end of the day, the team’s playing good ball, we’re in a good spot … and we’ll be right back in the fire Friday.”
The Orioles were hindered by some sluggish stretches on offense in Philadelphia.
“We didn’t score a whole lot of runs this season to make it easy on our pitching staff,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said.
The Yankees are coming off a 4-1 homestand, splitting two midweek games against the New York Mets. Now a trip to Baltimore looms even larger.
“Let’s go, baby,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We understand where we’re at. We’re getting down to the final couple months. We understand how important these games are and how important these series are. It’s also the fun part of it.”
The return of Judge gives the Yankees a much-needed power threat in the lineup. New York has gone 19-23 since their star was injured and gets back a player who has 19 home runs this season and hit an American League-record 62 last season.
Orioles rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (2-2, 6.91 ERA) will make his 13th career start and first appearance against the Yankees.
In two starts since returning to the majors following nearly two months with Triple-A Norfolk, Rodriguez has allowed six runs in 10 2/3 innings in a pair of no-decisions, but the game at Tampa Bay was encouraging on several fronts.
“I felt like a totally different pitcher,” Rodriguez said after allowing two runs and three hits over 5 2/3 innings. “Back to what I know. I think it gives me something to build off of. Definitely helped my confidence a lot.”
The Yankees will have right-hander Clarke Schmidt (6-6, 4.33) as their starting pitcher. He’s aiming for his fifth consecutive victory and he hasn’t been pinned with a loss since June 6.
Schmidt took the loss May 25 in a 3-1 home setback to Baltimore when he allowed one run in five innings. He has a 2-2 record and 4.09 ERA in eight games (three starts) in his career against the Orioles.
For the Yankees, this begins a six-game stretch against the AL East’s top two teams. They’re back home against Tampa Bay on Monday through Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
