New York Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners: James Paxton vs. Justus Sheffield

Thanks to a fairly easy win last night, the Yankees have now taken the first two games of the series in Seattle. Today, at a more palatable hour for those of us on the East Coast, they can finish off a sweep.

This afternoon’s game also bring us a fairly interesting pitching matchup. Over the offseason, the Yankees traded for James Paxton from the Mariners. While he wasn’t the only player sent back, the main piece in the deal was pitcher Justus Sheffield. This afternoon, we get to see them go head to head.

Paxton’s first season in pinstripes has been up and down, but he’s been on a definite upswing of late. He’s coming off his arguably best start of the season, 6.2 excellent innings against the Dodgers. In general, he has a 3.56 ERA in the month of August. Now, he’ll be making his first start against his former team, in a ballpark that brought him tremendous success.

As for the other half of this matchup, Sheffield has not had a great time since the trade. He started the year in Triple-A and did not particularly do well there. After a brief stint in the majors, he went back down to Double-A, where he pitched better. He’s now back in the bigs, where he has quite the tough task ahead of him.

Today’s game can be seen on YES or FuboTV or heard on WFAN or WADO. First pitch will be at 4:10 PM ET. Go Yankees, go baseball.