New York Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers: Gerrit Cole vs. Alex Faedo

It’s been a mostly dead and frustrating summer at Yankee Stadium, but that ought to change tonight. The Detroit Tigers are in town, but more importantly, the new school Baby Bombers are playing their first game at home Bronx after kicking off their careers with an electric three-game sweep in Houston, just their second dusting since the middle of May — and against a far more impressive team than the Royals.

They’ll have as good of an opportunity to take home a feel-good win tonight as they ever will, with Gerrit Cole leading the way on the mound looking to solidify his case for his elusive first Cy Young Award. Cole enters tonight with a league-leading 174 innings pitched, putting him on pace for his sixth 200-inning season since 2015, two more than anyone else in that span. He’s been in classic form over his last two outings since a six-run blowup in Boston, shutting down this very same Tigers lineup for two runs over six innings with seven punchouts just six days ago. That aside, Cole has been quite successful against the only two hitters from said lineup that have any experience against him beyond that, holding both Miguel Cabrera and Javier Báez to a .500 or worse OPS, though that’s not exactly an insane feat against either of those two these days.

Jasson Domínguez remains in the three-hole against former first round pick Alex Faedo (2-5, 4.89 ERA), a 27-year-old facing the Yankees for the first time who has struggled to get a foothold in the big leagues in 24 career starts dating back to last year. He was a standout at the University of Florida but looks to be more of a back-end type in the majors, living in the low-nineties with his fastball and making hay with a good, if not super-nasty, gyro slider, and a changeup that’s passable enough to get it done against lefties. He’ll generally live around the plate, avoid issuing free passes, and try to generate weak contact on bad swings at pitchers’ pitches. We’ll see whether the Yankees lineup can do damage.

The only change of note to that lineup from recent editions is Austin Wells taking a seat for the first time, in favor of Ben Rortvedt tonight. The rookie catcher went 2-for-10 with a double and two knocked in against the Astros, but Rortvedt has been catching Cole on a regular basis since Jose Trevino’ season ended early. Perhaps a weak Detroit pitching staff will be enough to inject some juice into Everson Pereira’s bat, as the young outfielder has just a .390 OPS over his first 51 plate appearances.

Come join us in the game thread for tonight’s action!

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium — The Bronx, New York

First pitch: 7:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES (NYY), Bally Sports Detroit (DET)

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9, WADO 1280 (NYY)/WXYT 97.1 FM (DET)

Online stream: MLB.tv

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