New York Yankees vs. Arizona Diamondbacks: Carlos Rodón vs. Zac Gallen

After yesterday’s cancellation, the Yankees are just about ready to wrap up their home slate for the season, and Carlos Rodón, coming off one of his better starts of the year, gets a chance to give fans a dose of optimism after a tough opening campaign in pinstripes. He’ll get a chance to do it against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who find themselves clinging to a half-game lead over the second NL Wild Card spot, and just a one-game lead on any Wild Card spot at all. It may be a lost season for the Yankees, but there’s still high-stakes September baseball at the Stadium after all!

Rodón set season-highs with 6.2 IP and 10 strikeouts against Pittsburgh last week, his first double-digit strikeout game of the year after having 11 of them last season and 5 of them n 2021. His fastball touched 100 mph, averaging a season-high 96.5 mph, and his slider, which he’s had trouble locating at times this tear, stayed in and around the bottom of the zone without being too non-competitive. Being able to put that together for two starts in a row will go a long way towards making us a bit less nervous about next year’s rotation depth.

Even if he does pitch well, though, another hard-luck loss could very well be on the way, because he’s being countered by Zac Gallen, who’s struggled lately but still remains one of the best pitchers in the National League. He’s got a 6.37 ERA over his last five starts, but that stretch also still includes a complete game shutout against the Cubs, who were at the time the hottest team in the NL, so don’t sleep on him in any case. Gallen won’t overwhelm anybody with his velocity, living in a modest 92-95 mph range, but his curveball is very bendy, he has right-handed changeup command as good as you’ll ever see, and oh yeah, he can also come at you with a cutter and slider, both of which are solid pitches on their own merit.

As far as the lineup goes, we see for the second straight day about as strong of a showing out for the youth movement as we’ve see this year, with Estevan Florial, Austin Wells, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Oswaldo Peraza all seeing the field together along with mainstay Anthony Volpe.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium — Bronx, NY

First pitch: 1:35 pm ET (though the Yankees have already announced that the game will not start on time)

TV broadcast: YES — NYY / Arizona Diamondbacks — ARI

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9, WADO 1280

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

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