00:00Are the Yankees feeling the pressure going into this weekend's Subway Series?
00:04They desperately need a win tonight to wrap up their series against the Blue Jays before heading to Queens.
00:10So, Greg Joyce is on to talk Yankees baseball.
00:14Greg, thanks for hopping on. Greg's at the stadium right now, live from Toronto.
00:18But before we get into the nitty-gritty about the Subway Series,
00:22how big is tonight's game against the Blue Jays to gain some sort of momentum
00:26going into the Subway Series this weekend?
00:29Yeah, I think it's important just to get out of here with one win at least.
00:32You want to avoid a four-game sweep, which is always a rough one.
00:37Obviously, they haven't been playing their best baseball of late.
00:41They go down 8-0 last night and make a wild comeback just to tie the game in the top of the eighth
00:47and then lose anyway. So, that's a little bit of a punch in the gut there.
00:51But it seems like any time over the last few weeks where they've seemed to get a little bit of momentum,
00:55they've taken a few steps back. Obviously, they won two or three against the Athletics over the weekend.
01:00The weekend before that, they won two or three against the Orioles, but in between, you know,
01:05they keep on kind of shooting themselves in the foot a little bit.
01:08So, obviously, it'd be good to, you know, get out of here with salvaging one win
01:12and try to take that momentum into the weekend because, yeah, it's gone on almost three weeks now,
01:18six and 13 over their last 19 games.
01:20So, you know, they're open to use something in the springboard just to kind of get them going
01:25and get them snapped out of the stretch.
01:27All right, now let's get into the nitty-gritty for this weekend.
01:29We got Marcus Stroman returning to Citi Field on Friday.
01:33He's going to open up the series against the Mets.
01:35Where is this guy's confidence level at after a good outing in his first game back this season?
01:40Does he got his juice back?
01:43Yeah, I think he's one of those guys you never have to worry about his confidence.
01:46He's, you know, I think whether he's going good or going bad, his confidence is always there.
01:51But I think, you know, what he gave them in his first start back against the Athletics,
01:55five innings and one run ball was about as good as they could have hoped for
01:59for a guy that hadn't pitched in the big leagues in a while.
02:02So we'll see what he has, you know, for an encore here.
02:05This is his first time pitching at Citi Field since he was a member of the Mets back in 2021.
02:10So that'll be an interesting reception there, I'm sure.
02:13But big series, you know, that's the guy that ever since he signed here last year,
02:17he's talked about wanting to pitch under the brightest lights with all the pressure on him.
02:22So he's the guy that thinks he thrives on that.
02:25So obviously it'll be a good test for him, you know,
02:28to see if he can kind of keep up what he did in his first start back.
02:31When you kind of sit back and look at this series and you break down the matchup,
02:36as a whole, the Yankees have a huge advantage pitching-wise for games two and three as well
02:41with Carlos Rodon and Max Freed taking the hill.
02:44So would you say that it would be disappointing for the Yankees to not take this series
02:49against a banged-up pitching staff for the Mets?
02:52Yeah, it obviously lines up well for them.
02:54I think last, when they met in May, the Yankees rearranged their schedule a little bit
02:58just to skip, I think it was Ryan Yarbrough to be able to get their best pitchers in that series.
03:03This time it just kind of lined up well.
03:05But I think any time you get your best two pitchers, Carlos Rodon and Max Freed, in a series,
03:11you got to hope to win two of those games at least with those guys on the mound.
03:15Obviously, they've been pretty good almost every time that Freed's been on the mound,
03:19although his last start against the Blue Jays here lost that one.
03:24I think it was only the second time they've lost to Max Freed's start when they're coming off a loss.
03:28Usually, he's been a pretty good stopper.
03:31But yeah, with those two guys on the mound, especially like you said,
03:33the Mets pitching staff beat up a little bit.
03:37Those are the matchups that you got to take advantage of.
03:40But obviously, over the stretch, sometimes even if the starting pitching has been good,
03:46the offense hasn't been good or the fielding hasn't been good.
03:48And so it kind of takes all those groups working together because it doesn't matter
03:53if Rodon or Freed throws six innings, a one-run ball.
03:57But if they don't get any support from the bats or behind them, it doesn't matter all that much.
04:01But certainly, on paper, they should have the advantage going in.
04:04You've been covering this team all throughout the season.
04:07You've been there for all the ups and downs.
04:09What are some things that you're looking out for this weekend?
04:11What should we be paying attention to in this Subway series?
04:15Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how the Yankees pitchers deal with Juan Soto.
04:22When they met two months ago, I think they held him to one for ten with four walks and three strikeouts.
04:29And obviously, Soto wasn't as hot as he is now.
04:32Obviously, he's coming off winning the NL Player of the Month.
04:35So it would be a good test for them to try to hold him down again as well as they did back in May.
04:41So that'll be a challenge.
04:43And then just seeing, you know, how they kind of respond, you know, hitting with runners in scoring position.
04:50Obviously, that's been a struggle here the last, you know, couple weeks during this stretch.
04:55You know, they did it better last night to be able to dig themselves out of that 8-0 hole.
05:00But, you know, they're trying to kind of get more consistent in that area.
05:03And then the last thing would just be kind of playing good fundamental baseball.
05:07They've gotten away from a little bit during this stretch as well.
05:09So whether that's, you know, the defense or better base running, both areas have been kind of lacking of late.
05:17So they just need to play some crisper baseball.
05:19Get back to the kind of branded baseball they're playing early on this season.
05:23Because obviously the last couple weeks have been a little bit too reminiscent of the struggle, the issues that kind of played them at times last year.
05:30It was their ultimately their downfall in October.
05:32So, you know, it would be a good opportunity for them to get back on track.
05:36All right, Greg Joyce, thanks for hopping on with us, man.
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