New York Yankees using series vs. Reds to adjust pitching rotation
NEW YORK — A three-game Yankees series against the last-place Cincinnati Reds will not generate nearly as much buzz as their meetings with the rival Red Sox – especially when Boston games bookend the series.
Still, the Tuesday-to-Thursday set at Yankee Stadium gives the club a chance to make some important tweaks in the leadup to the All-Star break, starting with the rotation.
To keep ace Gerrit Cole on regular rest (and line him up to start Sunday’s first-half finale against Boston), manager Aaron Boone flip-flopped Cole and Luis Severino, who gets an extra day of rest before taking the ball for Game 2 vs. Cincinnati.
“Bumping Sevy back to Wednesday prevents him from making two more [starts] before the break,” Boone said prior to Tuesday’s game. “We’ll slot him in on that weekend [July 22-24] in Baltimore and probably do the same with Nestor [Cortes] – he’ll probably go with the back end of the rotation coming out of the All-Star break.”
Severino threw 84 innings in his first 15 starts, less than half of the amount he put in during his last two full seasons, 2017 (193⅓) and 2018 (191⅓). He had worked just 18 innings since, missing all of 2020 due to Tommy John surgery.
Cortes, who earned his first All-Star nod with a 7-3 start, is up to 88⅔ innings and is likely to surpass his career high (93 last year) when he starts the Reds series finale.
“We’ve tried to be a little strategic with how we’ve done off-days here and there, being mindful of Nestor and Sevy,” Boone said. “It’s certainly something we’re paying attention to closely, and we’ll continue to do it that way.
“And, if at any point, we have to skip [a start] or do whatever we have to do [to manage their workload], we’ll do that. But we don’t feel that need right now.”
Resting vs. the Reds
Aaron Judge and Matt Carpenter each was given a scheduled day off Tuesday but were available to pinch hit.
Carpenter started every game in Boston over the weekend, including two in left field, and capped the series with his 10th home run in pinstripes. That made him the third player in franchise history to have 10 of his first 22 hits with the club be home runs.
Kevin Maas (1990) was the first, and one of Carpenter’s teammates was the second: Joey Gallo in 2021.
“[We] just try and get him starts where we can so he can stay sharp,” Boone said of Carpenter. “But he’s also shown he can sit for a handful of days and walk in and be impactful.”
Cincinnati 'Series' history
The Yankees are more likely to target Reds players as potential trade options than to face Cincinnati this October, but the teams do have a postseason history that goes back 83 years.
New York swept the Reds in the 1939 World Series and defeated them again for the 1961 title, 4 games to 1. The Big Red Machine scored the fourth of Cincy’s five all-time titles by sweeping the Yankees in 1976.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New York Yankees: Series vs. Reds allows pitching rotation tweaks
