Yankees open series against Rays

When and where to see

Tonight: Coverage of YES and the YES app begins at 6 p.m. with the pregame show

Tomorrow: Coverage on YES and the YES app begins with Yankees Batting Practice Today at 3 p.m

Sunday: Coverage on YES and the YES app begins with Yankees Batting Practice Today at 12:30 p.m

Pinstripe Pulse

At 25-14, the Yankees have the second-best record in the American League behind the 24-12 Orioles. Juan Soto’s .333 batting average is tied for second in the AL with Houston’s Jeremy Peña and trails only the .353 mark of Cleveland’s Steven Kwan, who was sidelined for at least four weeks with a left hamstring strain. Soto clearly leads the AL in OBP (.438) and RBI (33). Austin Wells is batting .321 in 28 ABs since April 24th. Anthony Rizzo has hit safely in five of his last six games, as has Giancarlo Stanton, with three of those hits going for extra bases. Volpe has hit a home run twice in his last three games.

How about?

Aaron Judge hit one of the most majestic home runs of his career on Thursday against the Astros! His eighth-inning drive off Ryan Pressly was 473 feet, and according to Statcast, it’s the third-longest drive of all time for No. 99. His only longer home runs both reached nearly 500 feet – a 496-foot stretch ahead of his current teammate Marcus Stroman in a game against Toronto on September 30, 2017 and a 495-foot drive off Logan Verrett in a match against Baltimore on June 11, 2017. You already knew it, but his great hit against Houston is a reminder that you don’t of Judge’s travels should be missed – you never know when he might unleash his productive power!

Know the enemy

The Rays will face the Yankees for the second time this year after losing two of three games at the stadium in mid-April. These games began a difficult stretch for Tampa Bay, in which the team lost nine of twelve games, but entering this series, Kevin Cash’s team has won five of the last six games. Isaac Paredes is on a roll, batting .360 with three home runs since April 23. The Rays’ offense just got a key hitter back in Josh Lowe, who missed the first 35 games of the season in Tampa Bay with a hamstring strain. Randy Arozarena continues to struggle, batting just .147 this season. He has scored in four of his last six games, but the All-Star hasn’t had a multi-hit game since March 30, Tampa Bay’s third game of the season.

Likely pitchers

Clarke Schmidt will face 23-year-old Taj Bradley in tonight’s opener, who played in 23 games last season and is making his season debut after recovering from a pectoral muscle strain. Bradley takes the place of Ryan Pepiot, who was placed on the 15-day injured list on Wednesday due to a lower leg contusion suffered on a line drive Sunday against the Mets. Nestor Cortes and Zack Littell are in line for tomorrow’s game. Luis Gil gets the call-up for the Yanks in the series finale after allowing just one run over 12.1 innings in his last two starts combined.

The story of my number

A new show featuring some of your favorite Yankees greats is now streaming on the YES app! Hosted by Gracie Cashman, The story of my number presented by the New York Lottery features pinstripe symbols that talk about their uniform numbers and other digits that mark important moments and achievements in their lives. The debut episode starring Aaron Boone is currently available. New episodes will then be available on the YES app every Thursday. The upcoming editions will feature Tino Martinez, Andy Pettitte, Don Mattingly, Nick Swisher and CC Sabathia.