New York Yankees vs. Miami Marlins: Jordan Montgomery vs. Sandy Alcantara

As the calendar turns to August, the Yankees look to wrap up their first post-trade deadline series by completing the sweep this afternoon in Miami. Winners of two in a row, and five of their last seven overall, the Bombers enter play today seven games back of the first place Rays and 2.5 back of the second wild card spot. Somewhat surprisingly, with a win today and some help from the Angels later this afternoon against Oakland, the Yankees can close out the weekend tied in the loss column with Oakland for the second Wild Card spot.

Jordan Montgomery, who has pitched very well of late for the Yankees, will take the mound today looking to continue the trend. Monty is riding a 14.2 consecutive scoreless innings streak entering today’s action with a 24:3 strikeout to walk ratio over his last 23.1 innings pitched.

He’ll be facing a Miami team that came into the series swinging some hot bats but have reverted to form over the first two games of the series. (Unlike the Yankees, the Marlins’ recent trades pushed their offense in the wrong direction.) For the season, the Marlins rank dead last in the NL in OBP, xWOBA, and second to last in SLG, wOBA and runs per game. At the risk of being officious Mr. Montgomery, should you allow this team to jump ahead with a big early lead, you may find yourself on the business end of some sternly worded social media posts.

The Yankees bats haven’t exactly been putting on a show lately either, averaging 3.1 runs per game over their last nine, without scoring more than four in any of them. To that end, Bret Gardner returns to the lineup today, as Giancarlo Stanton (66 HR in 746 career AB in August) gets the afternoon off.

It won’t be easy for the Yankees this afternoon, as 6-foot-5 righty Sandy Alcantara will be on the mound for the Marlins. Alcantara is a hard thrower who ranks in the 87th percentile in MLB in chase rate, which should make for an interesting matchup against the team with the lowest chase rate in the AL.

Check in with us here on the game thread throughout the game and after the game on the recap!

Location: loanDepot Park — Miami, FL

First pitch: 1:10 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES, Bally Sports Florida

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280

Online stream: MLB.tv

For updates, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.