New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals: Series Preview

The Yankees’ West Coast road trip could not have gone much worse for them. They dropped both series, winning just one total game out of their visits to the Rockies and Angels. Now, they’ll return home and try to get somewhat back on track as they host the Royals.

While the Yankees have been disappointing this season, the Royals have been outright bad. For all the talk of how the Athletics were potentially in the midst of a historically bad season, the Royals are only a couple games ahead of them in the standings. Their offense ranks near the bottom of the AL in most categories, and their pitching hasn’t been much better. This should be a series where the Yankees find some success, but as we know, things aren’t that easy for them.

Before the action gets going tonight, here’s a look at the pitching matchups for the next couple days.

Friday: Clarke Schmidt vs. Alec Marsh (7:05 pm ET)

Schmidt has really rounded into a very solid rotation piece, and that includes his most recent start. Against the Rockies, he went six innings, allowing two runs on three hits while striking out eight — it was one of his best starts of the season so far. Since mid-May, he has a 2.83 ERA and has held opposing hitters to a .658 OPS.

This will be the Yankees’ first even matchup against the recent debutant Marsh. He has some prospect pedigree having been a second round draft pick in 2019 and took part in the 2022 Futures Game. That being said, his MLB career so far hasn’t been great. While a good chunk of the damage came in his debut against the Dodgers, he has a 5.40 ERA in 15 innings so far.

Saturday: Gerrit Cole vs. Brady Singer (1:05 pm ET)

The bullpen let him down, but Cole was his usual excellent self in his outing last weekend against the Rockies. He struck out 11 while allowing just one run in six innings. Since his May swoon, he has a 2.55 ERA and 2.91 FIP in just under 50 innings.

A former Top 100 prospect, Singer still hasn’t quite lit the major leagues on fire yet in his four-year career. This is on track to be his worst season so far as he has a 5.70 ERA and is leading the league in hits allowed. In the three games he’s thrown against the Yankees, they’ve put up seven runs in 14.1 innings against him, although he was decent in the two games of that stretch that came in the Bronx.

Sunday: Luis Severino vs. Jordan Lyles (1:35 pm ET)

It’s been a disappointing season for Severino so far, but he had one of his best outings last time out. In the series opener against the Angels, he ground through six innings, giving up just one run on six hits and three walks. He’s been pretty meh in his career against the Royals, but this is an opportunity to build upon what he did earlier this week.

Last year, the Yankees saw a good amount of Lyles as he was in division as a member of the Orioles. They had their ups and downs against him, as he ended up with a 4.04 ERA in 35.2 innings. This year, Lyles has really struggled with a 6.06 ERA. He’s actually coming into this game on a better note, having held the Guardians and Tigers to just one total runs in 11 innings over his last two starts.