The Yankees, meanwhile, are trying to hold serve without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, who are both out until at least August. New York's lineup has scraped by on depth and has actually gone 12-13 since Judge went down, good enough to stay within a few games of first place but nowhere near their ceiling. First pitch Saturday is set for 6:05 PM ET at Citizens Bank Park.
Neither club is playing its best baseball right now. New York split its last homestand against Pittsburgh, needed extra innings to salvage a series and dropped a game to a last-place team. Philadelphia has lost 3 of its last 5, including back-to-back defeats to the Dodgers, and the offense went quiet in the finale. Both teams look more vulnerable than their season records suggest.
The injury list is where this game actually gets decided. New York is without Judge, Stanton, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt, stripping the lineup and rotation depth at the same time. Philadelphia's issues are smaller in scale but real: both catchers, Garrett Stubbs and Rafael Marchan, have been banged up, and the bullpen is already down two arms in Brad Keller and Tanner Banks. A first-ever meeting between these two this season, with both sides limping a bit into it.