Through 48 games, the New York Yankees possess the same 33-15 record they held at this point during the 2022 season.
This time, their offense is better and their pitching is strong without getting a pitch from Gerrit Cole, who is rehabbing an elbow injury.
After completing a dominating sweep of the Chicago White Sox, the Yankees will attempt to push their winning streak to eight games Monday night when they host the Seattle Mariners in the opener of a four-game series.
New York has outscored foes 41-12 in the streak after finishing the sweep of the American League’s worst team with Sunday’s 7-2 victory. Jose Trevino had a two-run single, Jon Berti hit a tiebreaking three-run homer, and Aaron Judge went deep for the seventh time in 13 games.
Judge is hitting .500 (12-for-24) since New York’s most recent loss, Trevino is batting .343 in his past 23 games, and Anthony Volpe is batting .315 during a career-best 12-game hitting streak.
“This lineup is pretty good — really good, actually, now that I think about it,” left-hander Carlos Rodon said after allowing two runs in six innings to give the Yankees’ rotation a 7-0 record with an 0.80 ERA during the winning streak “I’m just glad I’m on this team.”
The Mariners won 11 of 14 to end April before posting an 8-9 record over their past 17 games, including dropping two of three to the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend on the first leg of a 10-game road trip.
In Sunday’s 6-3 Mariners loss, Julio Rodriguez had two hits and is 12-for-28 over his past seven contests. Luke Raley added three hits, but the Mariners went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and struck out 13 times.
“We’ve got to regroup going to New York,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “I do think we’re gaining some traction with our offense here. We need to swing the bat well over in New York.”
The Mariners played a fifth straight game without Jorge Polanco (hamstring tightness) and could decide to put the second baseman on the injured list Monday.
New York’s ERA of 2.81 leads the majors, and right-hander Marcus Stroman (3-2, 3.33 ERA) will start on Monday. Stroman’s contribution to the winning streak occurred in a 4-0 win at Minnesota on Wednesday when he allowed two hits in six scoreless innings, marking the sixth time he has allowed three runs or less this season.
Stroman is 1-2 with a 3.75 ERA in four career starts against the Mariners.
Logan Gilbert (3-2, 3.07), who is coming off consecutive losses, will take the mound for the Mariners on Monday. Since allowing two hits in eight innings in a 5-0 win at Houston on May 4, the right-hander has been tagged for 11 runs on 13 hits in 10 2/3 innings during losses to the Twins and Kansas City Royals.
Gilbert is 1-2 with a 7.97 ERA in four career starts against the Yankees. He most recently faced them last May 30 in Seattle, when he was tagged for seven runs on seven hits in four innings of a 10-2 loss. –Field Level Media
