The New York Yankees will look to bounce back from a night of missed opportunities and misplays when they visit the Washington Nationals in the finale of their three-game series Wednesday evening.
New York committed a season-high four errors and left eight men on base in a 4-2 loss Tuesday night.
The Yankee’s Carlos Rodon (14-8, 4.16 ERA) will oppose fellow left-hander MacKenzie Gore (7-11, 4.51) in the rubber game of the series.
Rodon has alternated between good and not-as-good starts during four August outings. Most recently, after allowing four runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 17, he bounced back against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 23, tossing six shutout innings in a 3-0 win.
Rodon will make just his second career start against the Nationals. He took a no-decision last August when he gave up one run on six hits in six innings in a game the Nationals won 2-1.
Gore was stellar the last time out, allowing one run over seven innings of a 3-2, 10-inning loss at Atlanta on Friday. He struck out four without a walk while earning a no-decision.
“I thought we got ahead of guys; I thought when we did get behind, we got right back in with aggressive pitches,” Gore said. “I thought the stuff was fine. [Not walking anyone] was important.”
His sole career appearance against the Yankees came last August when he was tagged with the loss after giving up six runs in four innings in a 9-1 game.
Gore and his fellow Washington starters have been very good of late. On Tuesday night, winning pitcher Patrick Corbin, who entered the game with the highest ERA of any qualified starter in the majors at 5.73, tossed six shutout innings in his second straight quality start.
Over the past seven games, Washington’s starting rotation has fashioned a 1.60 ERA, held hitters to a .209 batting average, and amassed 40 strikeouts against 12 walks. The Nationals are 4-3 over that span.
Andres Chaparro and Jose Tena hit back-to-back homers on Tuesday, with Chaparro getting his first in the majors. Dylan Crews, playing his second big league game, had his first two hits for the Nationals, who won despite going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
New York came in having won five of six games but couldn’t capitalize on its chances and made too many mistakes on defense, including three errors in the sixth inning, when Washington scored its fourth run.
“We did not play clean tonight defensively,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “And on a night when we’re not scoring a ton of runs, we’ve got to be cleaner than that.”
Trailing 4-0, New York had its chances late. The Yankees loaded the bases in the eighth with no outs, but Aaron Judge grounded into a run-scoring double play. In the ninth, Jazz Chisholm Jr. doubled and later scored to make the score 4-2 with one out. New York got consecutive singles, but Kyle Finnegan retired DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres to end it with Juan Soto on deck.
“We had a couple chances there at the end, a couple swings to maybe win it and sneak that one out,” said Judge, who remains at 51 home runs. “Couldn’t come away with it.”
Through the first two games of the series, Judge, Soto and Giancarlo Stanton are a combined 3-for-24. Stanton, who began his career in the National League East with the Miami Marlins, has enjoyed much success at Nationals Park, hitting .297 with 22 homers and 47 RBIs in 62 games.
–Field Level Media
