Let's Keep Swinging Forward

  Looking at American League East, baseball followers see the Boston Red Sox at the very top with a 25-17 win-lost record, the Toronto Blue Jays in second place with a 22-17 win-lost record, and then the New York Yankees come in at third place with a 22-18 win-lost record. The only reason why the A.L. East is constructed that way is because the Yankees have been on a hot stretch lately, where they have been winning series by taking two-out-of-three games against the opposition. Recently Aaron Judge and his teammates finished a series in Baltimore against the Orioles that consisted of them winning the first two games and dropping the third, that is the only reason why the Yankees have 18 loses in the standings and the Jays edge them out for second place with a 17 in their lost column.

  It is just a matter of time before the Yankees start clicking on all cylinders, as the top part of the offense is starting to damage the baseball more by putting the baseball in play more and the bottom half still has some adjustments to make. Slow and steady wins the race, after all, this was a team that had a struggling starting pitching staff outside of Gerrit Cole, but they still managed to put together five straight series wins through May 15th. No knock on the Domingo Germans and Corey Klubers of the starting five, because they have really progress as the season has now increased to two months of playing time, but it is about time that those guys provided  much needed quality starts to aid a stellar back end of the Yankee bullpen.

  With the Yankee lineup showing some signs of a resurgence, Aaron Boone and the team will be heading to Arlington, Texas to square off  the Rangers in a four-game set at the venue of Globe Life Field.

  With Aaron Judge atop the chart of MLB Stat Leaders in homers with a total of 12, can he continue staying hot to push ahead in the A.L. East standing with Gerrit Cole on the mound tonight?

  That shall remain to be seen, but also Cole will be chasing history this evening when he steps on the mound.

  The way it is looking, the Yankees are looking like they are making steady progress on all fronts, as that consistent series' winning stretch that they currently find themselves on has them doing well on a 10-game road trip thus far. As a matter of fact, the team has set themselves up to be a 4-2 road warrior  club with those two of three game series against both the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles.

  With Aaron Boone handing the baseball to his ace this evening, Cole will be looking to rack up some more strikes to build upon his recent accomplishment on Wednesday that allowed fans to see the ace rack up number 1,500 total punch outs. A feat that was done by Brett Phillips, who accomplished it in his 212th career game, becoming the second-fastest player (in terms of games) to reach the milestone. He is trailing only Randy Johnson who actually did it in his 206th career game. Making his start on the mound tonight, Cole will try to get his name on top of  the list, as he is coming off the best start of the season in which he power pass 12 batters while hurling eight scoreless innings of work against the Tampa Bay Rays. A start in which he only allowed four hits and no walks. He will be looking to collect his sixth win of the year against the Rangers, against whom he has a 5-2 career record.

  Facing the Yankee phenom and a resurgent pinstriped offense, the Texas Rangers will send Jordan Lyles to the bump in game one of the four game set. Lyles worked himself out of a rough stretch in which he allowed at least three runs in six straight starts, which was turned around in his last outing against San Francisco. In that start, he hurled five innings of work, which included him giving up just two runs in a loss. Lyles has struggled with his control in the month of May, walking a total of nine batters after allowing just six free passes in April.

  With the Cole-Higgy tandem facing the Texas lineup in game one tonight, can the Yankee offense attack the strike zone to put the ball in play against the struggling Lyles?