Wow, we barely had time to come down from last night’s win before the Bombers tee it up again this afternoon in the Bronx. Jameson Taillon will toe the slab for the Yanks, who’ll be looking to sweep the short two-game series from their division rival Blue Jays.
José Berríos will be on the mound for the Jays and it’s hard to believe he’s only 27 years old as this is his seventh MLB season. Berríos has always been an above-average pitcher in every way measurable, which makes his poor start to the 2022 season very odd. So far this year Berríos has posted an xFIP of 4.82 and an ERA of 5.34, and those numbers are misleading as he’s actually performed worse than that. His expected ERA of 7.69 is over two runs above the actual ERA, and he currently ranks in the second percentile in MLB in both xBA and xSLG, while ranking in the third percentile in xwOBA. Jose has given up many hard-hit balls in 2022.
We do know that his ground ball rate of 34.3 percent is the lowest of his career, as is the 7.4 percent K-BB rate and his BABIP allowed of .327 is 36 points higher than his career average. Those are certainly factors in his poor results so far, but his velocity is the same as last season and he’s actually gotten more movement on his pitches compared to 2021 – it’s just been a matter of command, as his heat maps show a lot of middle/middle location.
If you follow the Yankees then you know Taillon has been great for them. So far this season he’s posted an xFIP of 3.49 with a walk rate in the 97th percentile in MLB, and a chase rate in the 81st percentile. I’m not a pitching coach, but that sounds like a great combination: Taillon knows when to throw outside the zone to elicit a chase, but still issues very few free passes? Count me a believer.
Taillon’s first pitch will be at 12:35 PM, EDT in the boogie down. The game will be televised on the YES Network and the MLB Network outside the tri-state area, and it can be streamed on MLB.tv outside the area as well. If you’d rather listen to the game, you can hear it on WFAN 101.9/660 and WADO 1280. As always, you can chime in with me @mybaseballpage1 on Twitter and the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook.
After the game, the Yanks head west to the Windy City to take on the White Sox in a four-game set, so let’s hope it’s a happy getaway day.
Yankees Lineup:
Hicks CF
Judge DH
Rizzo 1B
LeMahieu 3B
Torres 2B
Gallo LF
Kiner-Falefa SS
Gonzalez RF
Trevino C
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