New York Yankees @ Washington Nationals: Carlos Rodón vs. MacKenzie Gore

The Yankees flopped in the second game of this series against the Washington Nationals, but they still have a chance to put away a series victory with a win tonight. Their schedule gave them a golden opportunity in August with few strong opponents in-between a sea of middling to poor teams, but they haven’t quite capitalized as well as they could, going 13-10 so far. This is the last series to be played in full during the month, and once the calendar flips over they’ll start seeing plenty of teams in the postseason hunt again, so will they close it out strong?

The answer to that may lay on Carlos Rodón’s shoulders. In a season of ups and downs Rodón has weathered that storm almost identically to the team, pitching great out of the gates before enduring a horrid June and a not-so-great July. August has been kinder to him, as he’s pitched to a 3.10 ERA in four starts and only suffered one clunker, a 3.1 inning letdown against Detroit. Otherwise things have been on the up-and-up for Rodón, and he’s coming into this game off of a six-inning shutout performance, albeit one against the lowly Rockies.

Opposing him for Washington is MacKenzie Gore, one of the centerpieces to the Washington-San Diego trade that first moved Juan Soto. Gore has been a good investment for the Nationals so far, in his third year in the big leagues and approaching a new career-high in innings while starting to establish himself as a starter for years to come. His ERA isn’t too impressive at 4.51, but like Rodón he’s had one glaringly bad month himself and it came in July when he gave up 22 runs in 26 innings. Since then he’s gotten his stuff back together and rebounded, and he’s coming off of a strong six innings of one-run ball against Atlanta to show for it. He’s not a star yet, but the Nationals surely hope he’ll be headlining their rotation for many seasons going forward.

The Yankees are getting Austin Wells back into the lineup against the lefty, but Aaron Boone made the decision to keep DJ LeMahieu in at first base over the rookie Ben Rice. While Rice has had his own struggles at the plate, it’s hard to justify sitting him for LeMahieu when the latter has hit an abysmal .422 OPS against left-handers this year and Gore hasn’t played to traditional splits either. Boone’s reasoning was that he’s placing some of that on LeMahieu’s injuries slowing him down earlier in the year, and that he wants to rely on “the track record” instead.

How to Watch

Location: Nationals Park — Washington, DC

First pitch: 6:45 pm ET

TV broadcast/Video: Amazon Prime Video, MASN

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 AM (NYY)

Online stream: YES app, MLB.tv

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