New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels: Series Preview

After dropping the last two to end up with a split against the Rays, the Yankees are returning home to take on the Angels tonight. While they may have lost the best record in baseball distinction, the Yankees still hold a 4.5-game lead in the AL East, although we’re all wishing it was a bit bigger considering how Saturday and Sunday played out.

Following getting Monday off, the Yankees will get back on the horse tonight against the Angels. LA has been the eternal disappointing team in recent years, failing to capitalize on having Mike Trout and then Shohei Ohtani on their roster. However, they’ve gotten off to a solid start this year, currently sitting in one of the AL Wild Card spots. Coming into this series, they’ve dropped their last five, with the most recent coming in a crazy 12-11 loss to the Blue Jays.

With Trout, Ohtani, and co taking the Yankee Stadium field later tonight, let’s take a look at the pitching matchups we’ll see over the next couple days.

Tuesday: Jordan Montgomery vs. Noah Syndergaard (7:05 PM ET)

Montgomery still has one of the strangest stat lines in the league and most of it is not even his fault. He still has yet to get a pitching win, despite a 3.30 ERA/114 ERA+. That’s mostly because the offense has struggled to get him run support so far this season. That’s changed in the last two games, but he’s still been unable to get wins due to other factors, including bullpen shenanigans. Will tonight be the night that he gets his win, or will this strange run continue into June?

He’ll be opposing an old face in a new place as the former Met Syndergaard will get the start for the Angels. He’s been good on the whole this season, but he’s been down a bit in recent starts. Back on May 16th, Syndergaard lasted just 0.2 innings against the Rangers after allowing four earned runs (six total) on four hits. However, he rebounded in his next start, which also came against the Rangers, going eight innings and allowing just one run.

Wednesday: Nestor Cortes vs. Reid Detmers (7:05 PM ET)

The Nestor Cortes Destruction Tour continued in Tampa last time out, where he went eight innings, and even came out for a ninth, against the Rays. Cortes has gone at least 7.1 innings in three of his last four starts. In the few starts this season where’s he’s look hittable, he’s rebounded by bouncing back even better.

Speaking of weird pitching lines, Detmers has one. He’s put up a 0.910 WHIP, but also comes in with a 4.65 ERA and a FIP that suggests that he’s been even worse. He threw a no-hitter back on May 10th against the Rays, but since then he’s given up eight runs in 9.2 innings.

Thursday: Jameson Taillon vs. Shohei Ohtani (7:05 PM ET)

Friday against the Rays, Taillon had arguably his best start as a Yankee so far, when he threw eight shutout innings, allowing just two hits and no walks. He was excellent in general in May, putting up a 2.07 ERA in his five starts in the month, helping the Yankees win four of those five games.

After a slow start on the pitching side of things, Ohtani’s been better on the mound of late, putting up a 2.50 ERA in his last 36 innings, even after giving up five runs against the Blue Jays last time out. In his lone outing on the mound against the Yankees last year, he struggled and got knocked out after 0.2 innings and seven runs. If the Yankees want to repeat that effort, that would be good. They just shouldn’t replicate what happened in that game after that.