Last night the Yankees built an early lead against the Cardinals and held on for dear life. It wasn’t the most reassuring way to win a game, but any wins are welcome with the Yankees occupying the final playoff spot in the American League. Tonight they’ll face a robust challenge in old friend Sonny Gray, and Max Fried will try to get things right against a team against whom he has plenty of past success.

Yes, it is still a rather small six-game, five-start sample, but Fried put together some excellent performances against the Redbirds as a Brave. All five starts were ‘quality starts’: six or more innings with three earned runs or fewer. He’s held St. Louis hitters to a .479 OPS against him. A quality start like that is just what the Yankees would be looking for out of Fried; he’s only made it through six innings twice in his last seven times out. The key for him tonight will be limiting traffic, something Luis Gil did expertly last night until the sixth inning. Of course, he got plenty of help from the Yankee defense in that regard. Can the Bombers’ gloves support their ace tonight?

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I always get a melancholy feeling watching Sonny Gray pitch. He’s been so good for so long, but Yankees fans will remember him for that 2018 season where seemingly nothing worked. Of course he immediately returned to All-Star form with the Reds in 2019, finished the 2023 season as the Cy Young runner-up in Minnesota, and struck out 200 batters in his first season with the Cardinals last year. This season he has an ERA of 4.06 in 24 starts, but take a gander at his 3.11 FIP and you know we’re still talking about an excellent starting pitcher here. He’ll look to flummox Yankee bats with his seven-pitch mix, and don’t expect him to give away any free bases with his four-percent walk rate.

The Bombers are once again rolling out a lineup sans Giancarlo Stanton tonight—Aaron Boone dropped a concerning quote pregame about how he originally intended Stanton to play in right field for this one. Saying something like this—or reporting on it—without elaborating leaves fans to speculate; I won’t do so here. But it’s not great that Stanton’s red-hot is inactive for a third straight night if you include Thursday’s day off. You just hope his torrid stretch doesn’t get cut off prematurely by that gap.

In addition to Paul Goldschmidt being out of the starting nine for a third straight game, Cody Bellinger is also sitting tonight—I guess just because he’s in a bit of a rut at the plate? I’m not sure about that one; whatever the case, José Caballero will start in right field for a second straight game. Ben Rice will play first base and Austin Wells returns behind the plate; Wells caught the ninth inning yesterday. It’s probably not the best lineup card you could possibly turn out against a pitcher of Gray’s caliber, but who knows? Maybe it works tonight.

How to Watch:

Location: Busch Stadium – St. Louis, MO

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First Pitch: 7:15 p.m. EDT

TV broadcast: FOX

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 | KMOX 1120 AM/104.1 FM, WIJR AM 880 (En Espanol) (STL)

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

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