The New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals are playing live on the MLB schedule on Monday night for a one game battle at Kauffman Stadium and the matchup starts at 7 pm ET on ESPN and has James Shields matching up with Michael Pineda and this is a big matchup for both teams as they try and stay in the playoff race and NY comes in after a sweep of the White Sox.
The Royals are home for 10 games and this comes as a one game series after the teams has a PPD game earlier in the season and now both sides know what's at stake. The Royals are coming into the game after a loss and this comes after the team has played some amazing ball and they are now in first place in the AL Central and looking to keep it going. The team took over the lead from the Tigers and now they are looking like they will be the division champions.
The Yankees have not been able to score much, but they got a game winning home run from Brian McCann in their last game and now they are just three games back of the Mariners in the wild card. Robinson Cano and the M's have been getting some amazing pitching and they have pushed their lead in the wild card over the Tigers, while the Yankees were not able to gain any ground after they swept out the Red Sox in Fenway Park this weekend.
The Yankees come into the game after a dramatic win against the White Sox and they next will play the Tigers after this matchup. Those games will be huge since they are both chasing the Mariners in the wild card and that means one team will have to lose each night in the standings. The Tigers have Rick Porcello going in the game on Tuesday against Brandon McCarthy and he comes in after having a great start his last time out.
The Yankees have not been able to hit much, but they are getting things done this week and now they will be on the road for the next stretch. The team could decide their season in this road trip and depending on how the Mariners play, the wild card could be very different in one week. The Tigers and the Yankees cannot afford to lose with Seattle playing well and it likely will sting the Yankees even more knowing that Robinson Cano is in the wild card spot.
The Yankees are hopeful that Masahiro Tanaka can come back and that injury came after they had already lost CC Sabathia. The team has much more they need to do to make the playoffs, as their run differential is way under zero. Seattle has theirs over 100 and that is due to their historic pitching and now the Yankees have to find a way to get back into things.
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