New York Yankees @ Pittsburgh Pirates: Luke Weaver vs. Luis L. Ortiz

Last night, the Yankees pulled off a wild comeback victory with four runs in the ninth inning. September baseball between two teams out of contention isn’t always the most intriguing, but last night, the Yankees brought the intensity and pulled off the win with more than a smidge of help from a crucial Pirates throwing error.

After a grueling weekend in Boston in which the Yankees came away with three of four, the win kept the ball rolling and made the Yankees 4-1 in their last five games. First thing’s first — fans of both teams will be relieved to hear that Anthony Misiewicz is “alert and oriented” after a scary line-drive comebacker hit him in the head. Today, the Yankees placed him on the concussion IL and reinstated Ian Hamilton.

The win pushed the team to two games above .500 and ahead of the Red Sox in the (probably futile) Wild Card race. At this point, finishing with a better record than Boston — and a winning one at that — is about all we can hope for. High hopes!

The kids are starting to hit — Oswaldo Cabrera finally broke through with a three-hit game last night, and he’ll hit ninth behind Oswald Peraza, the latter much better of late. Stalwarts DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge both provided multi-hit efforts last night and are slotted back in at the top of the order. Austin Wells gets the start behind the plate. He’s been dreadful in the batter’s box, as has Ben Rortvedt. A hit or two today would do wonders to bring Wells’ confidence up.

The Pirates roll out a similar lineup as yesterday, and they send Luis L. Ortiz to the bump. He has a 4.66 ERA on the season, but pitched well against the juggernaut Braves his last time out. The Yankees send Luke Weaver out to start in his Yankees debut after being claimed on Tuesday, but the pitching situation is fluid for today in a bullpen game. Based on recent trends, we could see Jhony Brito or Randy Vásquez as the bulk guy, but beyond that, Aaron Boone will have to piece together the remaining outs.

How to watch:

Location: PNC Park — Pittsburgh, PA

First pitch: 6:35 pm ET

TV Broadcast: YES — NYY, AT&T SportsNet — PIT, MLB Network (out-of-market only)

Radio Broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280/WEEI 93.7

Online Stream: MLB.tv

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