Sunday Night Baseball: Yankees vs. Dodgers
Is this a World Series preview with Yankees vs. Dodgers on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball? Time will tell, but it is a rematch of the 2024 World Series and the American League is really wide-open, so it very well could be. That said, we probably won’t get a Ryan Yarbrough vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto matchup in the Fall Classic. I guess you never know, but for the Yankees to get to that point, they’ll probably want a starter with a little more upside.
In any event, this is the series finale in Chavez Ravine between the Yankees and Dodgers, as the New Yorkers have given up 26 runs in the first two games and are looking to avoid a sweep on Sunday night.
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How to Watch Yankees vs. Dodgers
Where: ESPN
When: Sunday June 1, 7:10 p.m. ET
Yankees vs. Dodgers MLB Odds
New York Yankees +142 // Los Angeles Dodgers -170
Total: 9 (-105/-115)
Yankees vs. Dodgers Game Preview
The Yankees have not enjoyed their visit to Dodger Stadium to this point. They lost 8-5 on Friday night and that seemed bad enough before they lost 18-2 on Saturday night. It had to be a really fun two-hour Uber ride home out of the parking lot and back to their homes for Dodger fans on the last day of May.
Will Warren and Max Fried have been unable to figure it out over the last two days, so we’ll see if former Dodger Ryan Yarbrough can have an impact. Yarbrough made 43 appearances with the Dodgers over the 2023-24 seasons and posted a 4.16 ERA with a 4.93 FIP. To Matt Blake’s credit, the Yankees pitching coach has gotten through with a really important message to this point, which is “throw your worst pitch less often”.
So, Yarbrough has scaled back the usage of his four-seam fastball, throwing it just 8.9% of the time this season. He has worked more heavily with the sinker, cutter, and sweeper and has found great results with a 3.06 ERA and a 3.08 xERA, though his 4.32 FIP is a tad concerning. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Yarbrough has allowed six homers in his 35.1 innings of work, but he has been throwing a lot of strikes and that comes with the territory.
However, that’s the problem in this one for the Yankees. Yamamoto has been throwing a ton of strikes, too, and he has a 1.97 ERA with a 2.53 xERA and a 2.74 FIP. The Japanese import has stayed healthy to this point and has worked 64 innings over 11 starts. He only pitched 90 innings over 18 starts last season. Given the laundry list of injuries for the Dodgers, Yamamoto’s health has become that much more important.
Yamamoto has had one truly poor start and it was five runs on six hits over five innings against the Diamondbacks on May 8. He threw seven shutout innings against them just 12 days later. That start came at home, where Yamamoto has a 1.86 ERA in 29 innings of work.
Despite the powerful nature of both offenses, these two starters have thrown the ball really well and the way that the first two games in this series have gone mean that both bullpens are well-rested, at least in terms of the high-leverage arms
Pick: Under 9 (-115)
Yankees vs. Dodgers Player Props
Yoshinobu Yamamoto To Record A Win (+135)
Yamamoto has gone at least five innings in each one of his starts this season, including the one all the way back on March 18 against the Cubs in Japan. He’s been the winning pitcher in six of his 11 starts. He definitely has far more upside than Yarbrough, even though the southpaw has thrown the ball very well this season.
