The West Coast meets the East Coast when the New York Yankees (30-21, 17-11 home) host the San Diego Padres (23-27, 11-12 away) in a three-game series beginning on Friday night in the Big Apple. The two interleague teams haven’t faced each other since the 2019 season.
The first pitch of the series-opener is at 7:05 p.m. EST inside Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. San Diego opens as the betting favorite (-130 moneyline) and the over/under total is nine runs.
What to Know – San Diego Padres
The Padres arrive in New York fresh off winning three of four games against the Washington Nationals. San Diego is in fourth place in the NL West, sitting 7.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On the mound for the visitors is expected to be right-hander Joe Musgrove (1-2, 6.75 ERA, 1.58 WHIP).
Musgrove will look to get back in the win column after recording a pair of consecutive losses. After beginning the season on the injured list, the 30-year-old has tallied 24.0 innings over five starts, allowing 18 earned runs, 29 hits, nine walks, while striking out 25 batters.
On offense, the Padres are last in the majors with a .223 team batting average and score 3.9 runs per game. San Diego’s pitching staff is tenth in the league with a 3.93 team earned run average.
All-Star Juan Soto leads the San Diego lineup that has struggled through the first two months of the season to get anything going. Soto has collected a team-high nine home runs and 22 runs batted in. Xander Bogaerts and Frenando Tatis Jr. have smacked seven home runs a piece but both sport batting averages around .250.
What to Know – New York Yankees
New York carries a two-game losing skid into the weekend series after the Baltimore Orioles rallied to win the last two games of the series earlier this week. The Yankees have had a great month however, tallying a 16-10 and remaining within single-digits of the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
Right-hander Randy Vasquez earned the callup and will make his major league debut in the series-opener. The Dominican Republic native signed with the Yankees at the age of 19 and comes from Triple-A with a 4.85 ERA over 42.2 innings of action. Vasquez has been better as of late, sporting a 2.14 ERA over his last four trips to the mound.
With Giancarlo Stanton still sidelined, Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo are the team’s Bronx Bombers. Judge leads the team with 14 home runs and 33 RBIs while Rizzo is second on the team in both categories with 11 dingers and 30 RBIs.
The Pick is In
There are some unknowns heading into this one, particular with the performance of Vasquez in his MLB debut.
San Diego has scored seven or more runs in three of its last four games, so the offense is showing signs of coming around. With a rookie pitcher on the hill we like Musgrove and the Padres to open up the series with a win.
The Pick: San Diego Padres ML
