The New York Yankees did not need to worry about their offense on Friday night, but they now face a concern with Giancarlo Stanton’s lower right leg.
The team will attempt to produce another big night at the plate and hopes to get good news about Stanton before meeting the Astros in Houston on Saturday.
New York will try to produce an eight-game winning streak for the third consecutive season. The seventh straight win came Friday night in a 12-4 victory in the opener of a three-game series with the Astros.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. collected three hits and drove in four runs on a two-run single, a solo homer and an RBI single, and the Yankees reached double-digit runs for the third time this season.
“A lot of really good threats all night, and then able to break through there a couple of times in a big way,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “So, just a lot of good at-bats up and down the lineup.”
Ben Rice, Ryan McMahon and Jose Caballero also homered for the Yankees, who had 13 hits.
Stanton contributed one hit — an RBI single to center in the sixth inning — but left the game after running gingerly between second and third base on that play.
“It’s tightness in his calf,” Boone said. “Hopefully, we got ahead of anything serious, but we’ll just see where he’s at tomorrow.”
The Astros are 4-14 in their past 18 games, though they finished with 11 hits on Friday. Houston finished with double-digit hits for the 11th time this season but is 6-5 in those games because of pitching struggles. The team has surrendered a major-league-worst 156 earned runs this season (5.97 ERA).
The Yankees tagged Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr. for seven runs (five earned) in five innings on Friday night. He missed the 2023 and ’24 seasons due to injuries and threw just 55 1/3 innings last season.
“It’s not a game plan thing, it’s not a health thing,” McCullers said of his outing. “I just got to do a better job controlling the first inning.”
Yainer Diaz homered and drove in two runs, but the Astros went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and struck out 11 times.
Yordan Alvarez had two hits and is batting .377 over the past 15 games.
New York’s rotation owns an MLB-best 2.61 ERA and is holding hitters to a .199 batting average, even as Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon make minor league rehab starts.
On Saturday, left-hander Ryan Weathers (1-2, 3.18 ERA) will return from the paternity list and will make his first career appearance against Houston. In his most recent outing, he allowed five hits in 7 1/3 innings of a 7-0 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Right-hander Mike Burrows (1-3, 6.75 ERA), who is off to a rough start since being acquired in an offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, will go for the Astros.
Burrows took a no-decision on Sunday in a 7-5, 10-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. He allowed four runs on three hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Burrows earned the win in his only career appearance against the Yankees when he relieved Paul Skenes and allowed two runs on two hits in 3 1/3 innings to get the win for Pittsburgh on Sept. 28, 2024, in New York. It was the major league debut for Burrows.
–Field Level Media
