New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles: Luis Severino vs. Jordan Lyles

Don’t look now, but since losing two of three to the Orioles in Baltimore last week, the Yankees have won five of their last six, having just finished off a three-game sweep of Cleveland to introduce the Guardians to the Bronx. After a nice, relaxing off-day on Monday as the O’s returned from a West Coast swing, the Yankees return to action with another series against their kryptonite, this time at Yankee Stadium.

Luis Severino (1-0, 2.08 ERA, 3.06 FIP) gets the ball in the opener of this three-game set. Making his fourth start of the season, the 28-year-old right-hander looks to build on a strong start to the season that included five shutout innings against the potent Blue Jays lineup back on April 14th. More importantly, he battled through five innings of one-run ball last week against the Tigers despite not having his best stuff, dancing around seven hits and two walks to keep his team in the game. It will be interesting to see how far the Yankees push him, as he did throw 88 pitches against Detroit; while conventional wisdom dictates that he could approach the 100-pitch mark tonight, I expect the Yankees to play it safe in the early goings.

Opposing him will be Baltimore starter Jordan Lyles, who apparently visited Kamar-Taj over the winter because he suddenly transformed himself from the actual, literal worst starting pitcher in baseball to an effective, albeit not elite, starting pitcher. In 15.1 innings across three starts, Lyles has allowed just 6 runs on 18 hits while striking out 12 — good for a 3.52 ERA and 3.91 FIP. His last two starts in particular have been very good, limiting the Yankees to one run on six hits in five and a third on April 20th and shutting out the Oakland A’s for five innings on April 26th.

As a reminder for those who missed it earlier today, Aaron Hicks was placed on the paternity list, so he will not be with the team. Miguel Andújar was recalled and will seemingly hold his roster spot for the series. The normal sans-Hicks lineup is in there with Kyle Higashioka at catcher. Will tonight finally be the night for No. 350 from Giancarlo Stanton? Let’s hope so.

All of this assuming, of course, that the game actually gets played. Here’s the weather report from earlier today:

Yeah, I’d say it’s a toss-up.

How to watch:

Location: Yankee Stadium — Bronx, NY

First pitch: 7:05 p.m. EST

TV Broadcast: YES Network, MASN

Radio Broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280

Online Stream: MLB.tv

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