New York Yankees @ Cincinnati Reds: Clarke Schmidt vs. Ben Lively

The New York Yankees have departed Toronto to travel to Ohio for a three-game set with the 19-24 Cincinnati Reds. The Bombers are coming off a very productive couple series against the Blue Jays and Rays, which saw the Yankees go 5-3, across eight games.

Clarke Schmidt will take the ball for the series opener, looking to bounce back from his disastrous outing against the Rays last weekend, which saw the right-hander cough up seven earned runs over 4.2 frames. The narrow 8-7 loss to Tampa Bay prevented a Yankees series victory and forced them to settle for a split.

Interestingly enough, this will be only the second time that Schmidt has pitched on the road across his last seven starts. It’ll also be his first time at the hitter’s haven of Great American Ballpark (and against the Reds in general), which isn’t surprising since this will be the Yanks’ first series in the Queen City since May 2017. Those were the only two games they’ve played in Cincy since the start of the 2015 season.

On the other side of this matchup, the Yankees lineup will go up against the 31-year old Ben Lively. Despite his age, Lively has limited experience in the big leagues, with 125.1 innings for three different teams, dating back to 2017.

This is the first year for Lively with the Reds, and so far in 2023, he has a 1.51 ERA across 5.1 innings, and tonight will be his first start of the season. In his two multi-inning, relief appearances, Lively had a total of 76 pitches, which means the Yankees should see a lot of the Reds bullpen.

By the way, the Reds will be rocking their City Connect units tonight. So don’t be surprised to see the Reds in all black (as seen in their lineup tweet below) when you tune in.

We hope you’ll come join us in the game thread for all of tonight’s action!

How to watch

Location: Great American Ball Park— Cincinnati, OH

First pitch: 6:40 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES Network (NYY), Bally Sports Ohio (CIN)

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9, WADO 1280 (NYY), WLW 700 (CIN)

Online stream: MLB.tv, YES Network App

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