The New York Yankees, who have been flexing their muscles in Detroit, will try to keep the power show going in the finale of a four-game series on Thursday afternoon.
New York won the first three games of the series while blasting eight home runs. Gleyber Torres hit one long ball in each contest. He was joined on Wednesday by DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton in the Yankees‘ 6-2 win.
“We’ve been putting together good at-bats for a while. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t,” Stanton said in a postgame TV interview. “We’ve had a great series here, and hopefully we get the sweep tomorrow.”
The Yankees have clinched their first series victory since sweeping three games from Kansas City from July 21-23. Since then, they had lost eight series and split two.
“Just good to get some good quality at-bats from different guys throughout the order,” New York manager Aaron Boone said.
Clarke Schmidt (8-8, 4.51 ERA), the Yankees‘ scheduled starter on Thursday, was a hard-luck loser in his latest outing. He gave up three runs in 6 2/3 innings at Tampa Bay on Saturday, but only one run was earned. The Yankees lost 3-0 to the Rays in that contest.
The innings pitched and 99 pitches Schmidt threw were career highs.
“It’s been my goal, and the knock on me recently is, ‘Can you get guys out the third time through the order?'” Schmidt said. “To go deeper into games and answer that call a little bit was a good feeling. It was big to go longer than I’ve gone this year and in my career.”
Schmidt has held opponents to three earned runs or less in all but one outing of his past 17 starts.
“I feel like I’ve already grown a lot from the beginning of the year,” he said. “Continuing to be out there and learning how to navigate those situations, the only way is baptism through fire, I guess.”
Schmidt will be starting against the Tigers for the first time. He made two relief appearances against them last year, totaling 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball.
He will be opposed by another right-hander, Matt Manning (5-4, 3.93 ERA). In his most recent outing, Manning gave up just one unearned run and one hit in 6 1/3 innings during a no-decision against the Houston Astros on Friday.
Manning tweaked his back in that game but he was able to recover quickly. He was originally scheduled to pitch on Wednesday, but manager A.J. Hinch decided to push back the start one day.
“I’m glad Matt feels better,” Hinch said. “It would’ve been brutal to lose him for a couple of weeks, but we didn’t think it was serious when it happened. An extra day here won’t impact him a ton.”
Over his past three starts, Manning has allowed only one earned run across 17 2/3 innings. He will oppose the Yankees for the first time in his career.
The Tigers, who have dropped 15 games below .500, will be looking to end a five-game skid.
Halting the Yankees‘ power surge will be key in ending the losing streak.
“They’re starting to free up their swings a little bit and they’re hitting mistakes,” Hinch said of the Yankees‘ batters.
—Field Level Media
