New York Yankees vs. Seattle Mariners: Luis Gil vs. Yusei Kikuchi

On Sunday afternoon, the Yankees will seek to complete a four-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners and a 6-1 homestand. Rookie Luis Gil will make his second career start in the effort, hoping to follow up on his electric and confident scoreless debut against Baltimore. Seattle will counter with their own talented hurler, Yusei Kikuchi, who earned his first All-Star appearance this season and has pitched to a 3.89 ERA and 129 strikeouts in a whopping 120.1 innings.

The game will also see the return of Luke Voit, who will play first base with newcomer Anthony Rizzo testing positive for COVID-19. The team’s struggles to keep the virus away from them continues.

The Yankees’ success since the trade deadline has been undeniable, albeit admittedly against weaker opponents. Still, their newfound ability to come back from deficits like in Saturday’s come-from-behind victory is making them fun to watch, finally. The fact that this surge is coinciding with the Red Sox perhaps falling down to earth certainly doesn’t hurt either.

The Mariners’ status as a true Wild Card contender has been iffy at best all season, considering their negative run differential and their results going in the opposite direction of New York’s since the trade deadline. A victory today would put 5.5 games between the Yankees and Mariners as they both seek a Wild Card spot. Meanwhile, the Yankees come into the game 1.5 games behind Oakland for the second spot and only 2.5 behind Boston for the first— and, if you want to go there already based on what we’ve seen since Rizzo and Gallo joined the crew, 5.5 behind Tampa Bay for the American League East crown.

How to watch:

Location: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

First pitch: 1:05 pm EDT

TV broadcast: YES, ROOT SPORTS NW

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280

Online stream: MLB.tv

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