New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox: Gerrit Cole vs. Nick Pivetta

Are the good times rolling again? The Yankees have won six of their last eight, and perhaps most crucially have looked like a legitimately solid team for the past week or so. The sky no longer appears to be falling, but their lead in the AL East is still too narrow to get comfortable. They’ll have to keep proving that their summer malaise is over, or else the Rays or Blue Jays could get right back up in their rearview mirror.

They start a quick two-game set in Boston tonight, and while games with the rival Red Sox are never easy, the state of Boston at this point means these are matchups the Yankees need to take advantage of. They have the right man on the mound to do so in Gerrit Cole, with the ace seemingly having moved past his midseason struggles. Cole allowed six first-inning runs to the Mariners on August 3, but ever since that ugly frame, he’s pitched to a 1.80 ERA over 45 innings.

Nick Pivetta will start for Boston, with an ugly recent history against the Yankees. He’s already faced the Bombers three times in 2022, and they’ve crushed him for a 1.117 OPS and 17 runs in 13.1 innings. Small sample head-to-head stats don’t mean much, but they serve to show in this case what an in-form Yankee lineup can and should do against mediocre opposition. On the season as a whole, Pivetta owns a 4.29 ERA, good for a 97 ERA+, and a 4.13 FIP.

Location: Fenway Park — Boston, MA

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First pitch: 7:10 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES Network, NESN, MLB Network (out-of-market, only)

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9, WADO 1380

Online stream: MLB.tv (out-of-market, only)

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