The Yankees woke up from their slump on Tuesday with an 8-1 win over the Blue Jays, right before hosting the struggling Reds.
Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, the top two contact hitters in baseball, led the Bombers with three RBI and a home run on Sunday and will have a great opportunity to face off against Graham Ashcraft.
Ashcraft, a third-year right-hander for the Reds, is one of the worst hit pitchers in the major leagues. His exit velocity ranks in the bottom 5% and is up about 3 mph from his 2023 stat line.
In fact, 45.6 percent of his batted pitches have reached at least 95 mph.
Ashcraft throws the cutter about 50 percent of the time, but Judge is batting .471 against the pitch with three home runs.
The only thing that matters is how Luis Gil bounces back from two poor performances in which he gave up 12 earned runs in a combined 5 2/3 innings.
Though his walk rate has crept up, Gill’s 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings give him plenty of promise against a strikeout-prone Reds lineup.
Gill and his electrifying fastball are well positioned to defend their lead in the AL Rookie of the Year market with a Cincinnati organization starved for hits.
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play: Yankees -1.5 Runs (+104, BetMGM)
