The last time the Los Angeles Dodgers visited Yankee Stadium was back in September 2016, when Aaron Judge was a month into his career and Shohei Ohtani was a star for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan.
Nearly eight years later, Judge and Ohtani will be among the stars on the field Friday night when the Yankees host the Dodgers in the opener of a highly anticipated three-game series.
“I think it’s going to be an amazing atmosphere,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s been really cool going to Dodger Stadium seeing this matchup and the buzz around it. I would imagine it’s going to be every bit of that and maybe more. I would expect it to be a pretty special environment.”
The Dodgers are visiting the Bronx for the first time since Sept. 12-14, 2016. Since then, the Yankees visited Los Angeles from Aug. 23-25, 2019, and June 2-4, 2023.
Judge enters the series with a 32-game on-base streak after drawing two walks and scoring twice in New York’s 8-5 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday. Judge’s latest contributions helped the Yankees win an eighth straight game, though the team’s good feelings were diminished by Juan Soto leaving early due to left forearm discomfort.
Soto, who has appeared in every game so far, was pulled during a rain delay between the fifth and sixth innings. He is slated for an MRI exam on Friday. The Yankees did not sound too concerned about Soto’s arm soreness that has persisted for about a week.
Ohtani is a .218 hitter with nine homers and 17 RBIs in 23 games against the Yankees. At Yankee Stadium, he is hitting 6-for-46 (.130) with four homers and seven RBIs in 13 games.
Ohtani made his previous appearances against the Yankees for the Los Angeles Angels. He is hitting .318 with 15 homers and 40 RBIs through 61 games in his first season with the Dodgers.
“It’s just so much power and speed to watch him run,” Boone said. “To watch that kind of stretch that he creates and torque he’s able to create at the plate and obviously generate massive power is a pretty special combination.”
The Dodgers are 6-3 in their past nine games following a five-game losing streak May 21-26. They salvaged the finale of a three-game series in Pittsburgh on Thursday by overcoming three errors in an 11-7 win. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez homered as the trio, along with Ohtani, went a combined 7-for-19 with seven RBIs.
“We know it’s going to be a great atmosphere,” said Betts, who is visiting Yankee Stadium for the first time since August 2019 in his final season for the Boston Red Sox. “They’re going to come ready to play.”
Adding to the intrigue is Los Angeles’ scheduled starter for the opener, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2, 3.32 ERA). The Yankees pursued Yamamoto in the offseason before he signed with the Dodgers. The right-hander has allowed one run or none in five of his 12 starts, including Saturday, when he yielded one run in six innings during a win against the Colorado Rockies.
New York’s Cody Poteet (2-0, 2.45 ERA), who starred at UCLA before beginning his pro career as a fourth-round pick of the Miami Marlins in 2015, makes his third start of the season and second filling in for the injured Clarke Schmidt.
Poteet made his season debut in a doubleheader at Cleveland on April 13, when he tossed six innings of one-run ball. He allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits in five innings during a 7-3 win at San Francisco on Saturday.
Poteet will be facing the Dodgers for the first time.
–Field Level Media
