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What we learned as Yunior Marte's strong MLB debut fuels Giants' win vs. D-backs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — The first game of Saturday’s doubleheader ended, and the Oracle Park stadium crew quickly got to work. From employees cleaning the seats to the grounds crew getting the field ready in a pinch, it was a clean slate for a new game.

The Giants approached it the same way, and a rejuvenated squad pulled off the 7-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2 of the doubleheader at Oracle Park to split the series with their division rivals.

Yunior Marte made his MLB debut and was nothing short of impressive.

The 23-year-old right-handed pitcher allowed three hits, one run (one earned), two walks, and struck out three through 4 2/3 innings.

And unlike Game 1, San Francisco’s bullpen and offense didn’t let the starting pitcher down.

Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge came through in big ways, which was pretty fitting on Jeff Kent night. It was a four-hit, four-RBI night for Eldridge. Devers had two apiece.

Jung Hoo Lee, whose bobblehead was a hot commodity in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, also came up big when needed with an RBI single in the seventh.

Jason Foley ran into trouble in the top of the seventh. He allowed three hits and one run (one earned), but the rest of the bullpen held it down.

Here are the takeaways from the win in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader:

Marte debut

Yunior Marte, who was part of the trade that sent Mike Yastrzemski to the Kansas City Royals last year, made his MLB debut on Saturday.

And no, it is not the same Yunior Marte that was on the Giants in 2022.

The young Dominican righty warmed up to “Suave” by El Alfa, which translates to “smooth” in English.

Marte struggled to find the strike zone early, walking the first batter he faced and tossing eight balls in his first 16 pitches in the first inning. He settled in a bit the rest of his outing, throwing just three balls in his next trip to the mound.

And the rest of the way, he was pretty suave.

Marte tossed 4 2/3 innings of 1-run baseball, allowing three hits, one earned run, two walks, and striking out three. He might have pitched a scoreless outing had outfielder Grant McCray read a fly ball better in the third inning.

He received a standing ovation from Giants fans as he headed for the dugout. The TV broadcast turned to what appeared to be his friends and family, who were proudly waving the Dominican flag and visibly emotional.

Hello, offense

It appeared that the Giants’ offense only was aware of one of the two games scheduled on Saturday. The bats didn’t show up in Game 1, outside of a lone run in the eighth inning as the Giants lost 7-1 against the D-backs.

But Bryce Eldridge helped get the team going early, bringing in the first run for San Francisco in the first inning.

Arizona responded, tying the game in the third inning after Grant McCray misread a fly ball that otherwise would have kept the Diamondbacks off the board.

But two innings later, McCray helped make up for it at the plate. He got the ball rolling in the fifth inning, and the Giants batters loaded the bases for slugger Rafael Devers. Devers delivered with an RBI single to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

Eldridge joined the party, knocking in a two-RBI single in the following at-bat that extended the team’s lead to three.

But you can never be too sure with this Giants team. As they have shown time and time again, no lead is safe.

Jung Hoo Lee brought in some always-needed insurance with an RBI single in the seventh inning.

Devers and Eldridge came through again in the eighth.

And this time, it all was enough for the Giants as their offense supported good pitching to secure the win.

Thief on the loose

The 2026 Giants rank in the bottom five in stolen bases in all of baseball.

You might not have guessed that while watching Game 2 on Saturday.

Jonah Cox alone had three stolen bags by the third inning.

He has eight on the season and increased his success rate to 88.9 percent.

Hey, there aren’t many things to be excited about with this Giants team this season, so we’ll cherish the small thrills when we can.

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Andrew Benintendi had three hits and was involved all three White Sox runs. The rest of the team had zilch. Didn’t matter, because the Twins are really bad, resulting in a 3-2 game and series win for the White Sox.

Benintendi’s first hit was an RBI single in the first, a 78 mph squib through a drawn-in infield that was only drawn in because Bailey Ober walked Sam Antonacci and Munekama Murakami to start the game, with Antonacci taking third on a Miguel Vargas fly out.

Erick Fedde gave up runs in the first and second to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead, walks being key in both cases because the Twins can’t hit much with Byron Buxton hurt.

Benintendi’s second hit was a leadoff double in the fourth, after which he scored when rookie shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, perhaps having watched too much World Cup, decided to kick around Chase Meidroth’s absolutely routine grounder to make it 2-2.

Benintendi’s third hit was a homer in the sixth, which would stand up as the game-winner:

Meanwhile, Fedde settled down to throw scoreless ball through the fifth, Sean Newcomb had an excellent relief stint of three innings with two singles and no walks, and Bryan Hudson tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

As his luck — or skill — would have it, Culpepper followed up the costly error by striking out, fouling out, and then ending the game on a grounder to first. Definitely not his day, so let’s be kind and show his one moment of competence — oh, OK, make that excellence — on a Braden Montgomery grounder with two on (via walks, of course) in the seventh.

Twins pitchers tried to help the Sox, issuing six walks, but when you go 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, the walks don’t help enough. Twins batters tried to help as well, going an even worse 0-for-7 with RISP.

Heck, even Twins catcher Victor Caratini did his best to help the Sox by running his team out of challenges early, one of his calls on a pitch not even close — challenges they could really have used in the eighth and ninth, when two very bad calls against them had to stand.

The win runs the White Sox record to an amazing 72-63, a season-high nine games better than .500. With Cleveland again trailing Kansas City, there’s a chance that the magic number drops to 24 to 23 in another hour or so.

Either way, the White Sox are eyeing a sweep tomorrow, with Jordan Hicks playing the role of opener versus Zebby Mathews, who sports a 4.86 ERA but has had good performances his last two times out.

Sox MVP
Andrew Benintendi: single, double, HR, two RBI, 1 run

Runners-up
When Benintendi had the only hits and RBIs in the game? Fuggedaboudit

Soiled stockings
The rest of the offense, in a team effort

The Cincinnati Reds played baseball against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday afternoon up in Wrigley Field. We won’t get into the nitty gritty of what kind of score ended up on the scoreboard – that’s the kind of thing that teams who are in playoff chases get to care about.

Over here at Red Reporter, we get to follow the exploits of one Sal Stewart as the season dwindles to a close. And thankfully for us, Sal keeps providing us with the good stuff.

Sal swatted a 105.9 mph hammer some 431 feet into the left-center seats at Wrigley for his 30th homer of the season during Saturday’s game. In the process, he became just the 14th big league rookie to ever post a season with at least 30 homers and more than 100 runs batted in, while also joining inner-circle Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only rookies in Reds history to hit at least 30 dingers.

As MLB’s Sarah Langs pointed out, 9 of the aforementioned 14 rookies with 30/100 seasons came after the Rookie of the Year Award began in 1947, and all 9 of those rookies took home the award at season’s end.

Pretty rarified air Sal finds himself in these days. I wonder if the front office of the Reds can put anyone else around him and build a winner while he’s in a Reds uniform the next few years…

Saturday’s matchup between the Cardinals and Pirates had an odd feel to it. Pittsburgh was planning on having a bullpen game and with Kyle Leahy on a strict pitch count limitation, St. Louis was, too. Eventually, it would be mistakes and who could make the most of opportunities that would decide which team would walk away with a win. In the end, the Cardinals and Pirates would join forces to try and defeat Pittsburgh, but neither was successful.

Kyle Leahy only made one mistake in the top of the 1st inning, but that mistake traveled 364 feet when he threw a 91 mph slider to Brandon Lowe who sent it over the fence in right for a 1-0 Pirates lead. The Cardinals would pull even in the bottom of the 3rd inning when Joshua Baez hit his first Busch Stadium home run which barely snuck over the left field wall tying the game 1-1.

Kyle Leahy was pulled from the game after 3 innings as his pitch count hit 51. He was replaced by Brycen Mautz for the top of the 4th inning. He gave up what looked like an innocent single to left to Lowe, but Joshua Baez misplayed it as the ball got past him which resulted in a two-base error and Lowe standing at third base with no outs. He would score two batters later when Gonzalez singled to center giving Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead.

Pittsburgh would threaten again in the top of the 5th inning. Mautz walked Reynolds to leadoff the inning. He advanced to second on a wild pitch then advanced to third when O’Neil Cruz singled to right. With runners on first and third with just one out, Brycen struck out Mangum. A hanging breaking ball to Flores Jr. would doom Mautz as he blasted it deep into the bleachers in left-center for a 5-1 Pirates lead.

Just when it looked like Saturday’s game would go down the drain as a big dreary disappointment, the Pittsburgh Pirates decided to join the Cardinals in trying to defeat themselves. In the bottom of the 6th after Alec Burleson popped out, Jordan Walker smoked a ball directly to Gonzalez at short, but it went right through him into left field for an error (the first of many in the 6th). Nathan Church grounded into a fielder’s choice which resulted in another error by Gonzalez giving the Cardinals runners on first and second with just one out. The most outrageous error of the 3 by Pittsburgh happened next when Jose Fermin flied to centerfield, but O’Neil Cruz just completely blew the play which allowed Jordan Walker to score cutting the Pirates lead to 5-2. Sadly, that’s all the runs the Cardinals would get after Gorman and Baez both popped out to end the Cardinals 6th. Even with the Pirates helping, St. Louis couldn’t make much of the nearly unprecedented blunder-fest.

Cade Winquest made his Major League debut in the top of the 7th and his first effort was impressive. He made Bryan Reynolds look ridiculously bad striking him out on 3 straight pitches, the last one a wicked 79 mph curveball. Nasty (in a good way). He would end the 7th inning with 2 strikeouts and a pickoff.

The Cardinals offense was so pathetic for the first 2/3 of the game, they didn’t get their 3rd hit until the bottom of the 7th inning when Jimmy Crooks led off with a double down the right field line. The slumping JJ Wetherholt was unable to move him over as he broke his bat and popped out to short center. Ivan Herrera didn’t do anything productive either as he flew out to center. Perhaps it was peer pressure of not coming through with positive offense that led Alec Burleson to ground out to third to end the Cardinals 7th with no runs.

THIS TEAM IS SO FRUSTRATING TO WATCH ON DAYS LIKE THIS.

Back to positive thoughts. Cade Winquest looked impressive in the top of the 8th inning, too. The movement on his curveball is a sight to behold. Groundballs, strikeouts and not allowing hard contact are a reason to be pleased about his debut. Ryan Fernandez was brought in to handle the top of the 9th inning for St. Louis. His goal was to keep the Cardinals within reasonable striking distance for the bottom of the 9th in case the St. Louis offense decided to wake up and he was not successful. With two outs, he walked Lowe. Reynolds followed that with a single and Gonzales doubled to give the Pirates an extra run they likely would never need making it 6-2.

The St. Louis Cardinals would need to do something in the bottom of the 9th that they had not done in any of the previous innings Saturday. A come-from-behind win would require multiple back-to-back hits and a bit of luck. Lefty Mason Montgomery came in to close out the games for the Pirates. Oli Marmol sent up Thomas Saggese to pinch-hit for Nolan Gorman. It only took 3 pitches for Saggese to strikeout. Joshua Baez was next to face the 99 mph heat from Montgomery. He worked the count full before flying out to deep left-center for the second out. Ramon Urias was the Cardinals last hope Saturday. He struck out on a check swing strike 3 which was appropriate considering how the rest of the game went. A big bummer effort, Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their homestand before a long west coast swing as they’ll host the Pirates again on Sunday. Matthew Liberatore will give it a go for the Cardinals while the Pirates will start Braxton Ashcraft. First pitch is set for 1:15pm at Busch Stadium and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

On Friday, the San Francisco Giants had a couple of guests before they played the Arizona Diamondbacks. San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith made a special visit to Oracle Park and participated in batting practice in a Bay Area crossover.

Celebrini nearly hit a long ball, but fell just short hitting the Levi's Landing sign in right field:

Macklin Celebrini came sooo close to his first home run at @OracleParkSF 🤏 pic.twitter.com/z19lxmBWYw

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 29, 2026

Meanwhile, Smith, the great-great-grandson of MLB pioneer and the founder of the Chicago White Sox Charles Comiskey, was able to round the bases:

Will Smith hits one out! pic.twitter.com/r5ProcX6Ta

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) August 29, 2026

The Sharks and Giants often team up for Bay Area Unite events and collaboration events, so we'll likely see Celebrini and Smith visit the stadium on the sea again in the relatively near future, which the Giants hinted at themselves:

Same time next year, @SanJoseSharks? 🏒⚾️ pic.twitter.com/vEsxpbVWTb

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 29, 2026

With Celebrini earning himself one of the NHL's biggest contracts and Smith competing in Drake Maye's charity softball game back in May, then visiting the Giants on Friday, the Sharks' young stars have certainly been keeping themselves busy ahead of their third season in the NHL. 

Shohei Ohtani is expected to pitch again in a game for the Dodgers at some point, possibly soon. But it won’t happen on Sunday, or Tuesday, manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park in Detroit after a loss to the Tigers.

“In total, Sho hasn’t come out of it well, the arm, the knee. If any pitcher was feeling like this, we wouldn’t run them out there,” Roberts told reporters, as shown on SportsNet LA. “For us, it’s take tomorrow off the table, let’s get back to LA, let’s kind of figure out where his body is at, and go from there.”

Ohtani last pitched on July 3 against the San Diego Padres, and has been sidelined from pitching ever since with left knee irritation, and missed the All-Star Game after treatment on said knee. He’s also dealt with a right biceps injury in the last two months, and the Dodgers have been cautious about not wanting Ohtani to have to compensate while pitching and potentially injure himself further, threading a delicate balance of wanting Ohtani back on the mound by the postseason while also needing to keep his bat in the lineup for a Dodgers offense that has struggled for two months.

“I don’t think he’s 100 percent. That’s the hard part right now is trying to figure out if he’s not 100 percent, overall body, is it worth giving him an inning to build up, or not,” Roberts said Saturday morning, as shown on SportsNet LA. “It’s more of when [Ohtani might pitch], and does it have to be [Sunday]. Internally, we’re trying to discuss it.”

“To be quite frank, I just don’t see everything getting to 100 percent by the end of the season,” Roberts added. “But then again, there are a lot of pitchers who aren’t 100 percent, but are still viable. It’s just not an exact science.”

Ohtani won’t pitch on Tuesday either, Roberts said. But he will continue to hit, and will be in Sunday’s starting lineup in Detroit.

The road back for Ohtani on the mound began ramping up in earnest on August 14 with a bullpen session at Dodger Stadium, his first time pitching off a mound in over three weeks. He threw 30 pitches of a simulated game, all to rehabbing Dodgers catcher Will Smith on August 22 at Dodger Stadium, then Ohtani threw off flat ground on the road trip on Wednesday in Atlanta before a 20-pitch bullpen session on Friday in Detroit.

Ohtani this season has a 1.79 ERA and 2.59 xERA with 95 strikeouts and 26 waks in 85 2/3 innings. Among major league pitchers with at least 80 innings this season, Ohtani ranks second in ERA, fifth in xERA, and 14th in strikeout rate. He completed at least six innings in 13 of his 14 starts.

It’s unclear how many pitching starts during the regular season might get, but considering his first outing would be one inning, he might not be able to build back up to five innings by the postseason. Because Ohtani is a two-way player, he doesn’t count against the active-roster limit of 13 pitchers, which will increase to 14 pitchers on Tuesday, September 1. That means any innings Ohtani throws are innings the rest of the Dodgers pitching staff doesn’t aren’t burdened with.

“For Shohei, knowing that any inning is additive is important, and it was a formula that worked,” Roberts said on August 14.

Tyler Glasnow was always going to pitch on Sunday, whether following Ohtani’s one inning or not. Now, Glasnow will start. The right-hander returned Tuesday from three and a half months on the injured list with back spasms with seven strikeouts in five innings allowing three runs in Atlanta, and will be pitching on four days rest against the Tigers.

Texas Rangers lineup for August 29, 2026 against the Milwaukee Brewers: starting pitchers are Cal Quantrill for the Rangers and Shane Drohan for the Brewers.

Texas will try to score some runs today. Ideally multiple runs. They have the righty-swinging crew going.

The lineup:

Foscue — 2B

Seager — SS

Langford — LF

Nimmo — RF

Duran — CF

Burger — 1B

Jansen — C

O’Hoppe — DH

Freeman — 3B

6:15 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +145 underdogs.

Recap

The Sox jumped out to a sweet, sweet lead in the first with Wilyer Abreu’s twenty-third home run, a career high.

Jake Bennett went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and damn it felt good. He did the same in the second. He threw a fantastic game, in fact, keeping the Yankees off-balance and off the board.

Carlos Rodon who, outside of Abreu’s homer, had been extremely steady, unraveled in the fifth inning: a long at-bat to Adley Rutschman, a small tantrum after a passed ball that scored Rutschman, followed by a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Simply put, the Sox tilted him and got to the Yankees’ bullpen early with the bases loaded. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, and the insurance run had to be enough to satisfy…for now. 2-0, Sox.

But this rush to the bullpen could take on more importance in Game 2 of the doubleheader tonight. Yankees manager Aaron Boone used four pitchers by the seventh inning and was pretty liberal with the use of the bench too. We’ll see how fresh the Yankees feel later on.

Garrett Whitlock returned from the IL in the eighth and in the same inning, Rutschman successfully used an ABS challenge to recover a strikeout (he did it again in the ninth too). What began as a tough game for Rutschman ultimately was a triumph: ending his drought at the plate, scoring two runs, and converting those strikeouts.

So many other moments worth mentioning:

• Nick Sogard was unfairly sent back to second base in the fifth inning when the third-base umpire inexplicably called time while the play was still in progress. He was sent back and forth from third to second and back while it was sorted out. He had a nice game.
• Three Yankees let a shallow outfield fly drop among them and it was glorious.
• Yankees fans booed the team and started leaving the stadium. Also glorious.
• The Sox had several defensive hiccups but they had some great defensive plays too.

The Sox took a one-game lead against the Yankees in the season series. This series is the last time they’ll meet in the regular season and for the record, I completely disagree; what is September without the Red Sox/Yankees?

What a win. Stay tuned for tonight!

Studs

Pitching

Jake Bennett was in command today: 6 IP, 3H, 0 BB, 7K. Garrett Whitlock returned, with a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and only 13 pitches. Tyron Guerrero and Jovani Moran also did their jobs. No Yankees batters walked.

Erik Miller and Aroldis Chapman remain fresh for Game 2 tonight.

Baserunning

Lots of heads-up running to capitalize on Yankees passed balls, errors, miscues, falls in the outfield. I love our running game.

Ninth-Inning Pile-On

The Sox added four runs and we could relax.

Duds

I hate to get picky on a day like this but here goes.

Willson Contreras

He had 3K, though also some nice moments over at first. Tough day at the plate.

Defensive Hiccups

A throwing error by Caleb Durbin, and a fielding error by Eli White. Ceddanne Rafaela uncharacteristically misread what looked like an easy fly and allowed it by him (though he recovered quickly from his initial misplay and started a beautiful relay to the plate that erased the runner and kept the Yankees off the board). Adley Rutschman allowed a passed ball in the fifth, and also dropped a foul tip, seemingly while trying to transfer the ball in order to throw it to third (there was no reason for this). This gave the Yankees another bite at the apple but thankfully nothing came of it. A parade of miscues and two actual errors; that’s not usually the Sox brand of ball. This being said, there were some nice scoops at first, and the dramatic recovery to nail the runner at the plate could almost make you forget about the rest (except for the box score, which doesn’t lie). But with a dramatic finish and the W, all is forgiven.

Play of the Game

Andrew Monasterio’s single in the ninth drove in two and instantly turned a relatively tight 2-0 game into a shout-out-loud party. The Sox had no outs and went on to score two more in the inning but this was the play that wrapped the game up in a bow.

Shohei Ohtani's return to pitching remains uncertain, as Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters in Detroit Saturday, Aug. 29 that the two-way superstar is "not 100%" and cut a bullpen session short a day earlier due to "overall body" considerations.

Ohtani has not pitched since July 3 due largely to left knee soreness, but he is also battling a right biceps issue, both conspiring to truncate a pitching campaign that saw him post a 0.74 ERA through his first 10 starts and a 1.79 mark over 14 outings.

Since Ohtani last pitched, the Dodgers acquired two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Tigers, which greatly lessened Ohtani's urgency to return to the mound. They've also regained lefty Blake Snell and right-hander Tyler Glasnow from the injured list, all following No. 1 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

What a miserable afternoon. The Yankees’ so-called lefty specialist lineup looked like they were swinging pool noodles, the team defense was terrible, and the squad in general looked like they forgot they had a game at 1:05pm. It should surprise nobody then when you combine those three qualities, you tend to lose, this time by a 6-0 score to the Red Sox.

What do we say about Carlos Rodón this time?

I’ve found myself recapping a lot of Rodón’s starts this year, one of those weird, mostly random bits of clustering that you only notice after 120 games or so. I’ve remarked before what a laborious viewing experience I find him to be, clomping around the pitcher’s mound like an uncoordinated horse or your aunt at a wedding when she discovers what a kamikaze is. I’ve recapped multiple games where he fails to get through five innings, indeed today was the third straight occasion. I think these games would go by quicker if every hitter started with a 2-2 count, because Rodón is going to get there regardless before anything interesting happens. All three of those conditions were met today.

He gave up a home run to Wilyer Abreu in the first inning, the third batter he faced. He then sat down the next 11 hitters he faced before Adley Rutschman finally broke through with a single in the fifth, where the troubles began. Rodón then got a liner right to Amed Rosario for the second out of the inning, only for Rosario to throw the ball somewhere in the ZIP Code of first base, trying to double up Adley but instead having the ball rattle around the baseline fence, and Boston’s catcher was on second base. We’ll come back to Rosario in a minute, but today was just about the last time I want to see him in pinstripes.

Speaking of people I no longer want to see in pinstripes, I hope all that kvetching about the Yankees carrying two left-handed hitting catchers was worth it, because Ali Sánchez does stand on the right-handed hitters’ side of the plate despite not actually hitting. Adding to the problem, he doesn’t do much catching either:

As annoying as I do find Rodón, it’s hard to pin that run on him. He gave up just three hits on the day, but after Adley scampered home he walked and then hit consecutive batters, the kind of falling apart after a bad play that we’ve seen him do before. Yerry De los Santos took over with two outs in the frame and managed to navigate his way out of danger.

You’ll be stunned to know the team didn’t manage much offensively, but on the topic of offensive … I said we’d get back to Rosario, didn’t I?

This is a terrible send from third-base coach Luis Rojas, no question. Still, most of the blame lays with Amed, partially because I’m already annoyed with him. There’s no reason to be tagging up on this play: Ceddanne Rafaela is probably the best defensive center fielder in the AL, if he makes the catch the risk of tagging up and heading to third, with two out it isn’t worth the extra 90 feet. You need to freeze midway between second and third — if Rafaela catches that ball, you have enough time to return to second, but the way he’s twisting and turning, if the ball gets down you need to be able to score. Rosario (and Rojas!) makes the worst possible decision and he’s a dead duck at home. Embarrassing stuff.

Ryan Yarbrough got the short end of the stick, saving the bullpen with three innings of work in the front half of the day’s doubleheader. He did allow some runs in the ninth, walking Caleb Durbin to open the frame and then letting Rutschman reach second on a dying quail to no man’s land. Andruw Monasterio’s single brought in both runners, but Yarbs had to wear this one with so much anticipated stress on the bullpen the rest of the weekend. The usually-excellent Cody Bellinger lost his footing in left field on a Nick Sogard double a batter later, seeing Monasterio score the third run of the inning. A fourth came home to make it 6-0 as Ryan was noticeably gassed, and critically, Boston taking the game out of “save situation” status meant Aroldis Chapman didn’t need to be used, and is available in the nightcap.

After a game like this, you’re kind of grateful there’s another in two hours, so the team can hopefully wash the taste of this one out of their mouths. There’s very little about the Yankees, especially the Yankee offense, that makes me confident they’ll be able to though. At least we get Max Fried back. The Yankees need to win both the remaining games in this series in order to have the tiebreaker in the event they end the season tied with the Red Sox, but when has a tiebreaker been important in determining the Yankees’ playoff fate anyway?

First pitch of the night half of today’s affair comes on FOX at 7:05pm Eastern. Fried is set to face an opener, lefty Alec Gamboa. Brayan Bello is expected to work as the bulk guy in relief for Boston.

Box Score