The Yankees will return home and play a 3-game series against the Cincinnati Reds
After their six game road-trip with two of those game being in NYC against the Mets, the Yankees will begin a six game home-stand with a 3-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds are six games below .500 and have gone 7–12 since going 12–3 from May 24 to June 8.
In the Reds last six series, they have lost four and tied two. Their tied their most recent series against their division rival Cardinals and they were very up and down in that series. They were shutout in their two losses but pitched well as they were outscored 3–0 in those two games. In their two wins in the series in St. Louis, they scored at least nine runs in each of the games and outscored the Cardinals 20–8.
The Reds are 39–45 this season and six games below .500 after finishing last season two games above .500 at 82–80. They were lucky last season to be over .500 since they had a -38 run differential but this season they are unlucky to be under .500 since they have a +15 run differential. All the other 14 teams in MLB that have a positive run differential have a .500 winning percentage or better. The Mets, who have gone 17–6 since June 3, are the team that has a positive run differential (+10) that is exactly .500.
The last time the Yankees faced the Reds they swept them 3–0 from May 19 — May 21 of last season. One of those wins was a 7–4 win in 10 innings and overall the Yankees outscored the Reds 17–7 in the series. Clay Holmes got the win in the extra inning game and then got the save in the series finale.
The Reds are 22nd out of 30 teams in homers with 79, they are 15th out of the 30 teams in runs scored with 358, they are tied for 21st out of 30 teams in OBP with a .305, they are 21st out of 30 teams in OPS and they lead all of Major League Baseball in steals with 123.
The major reason that they lead MLB in steals is Elly De La Cruz, who is one of the best young players in MLB. Cruz is just 22 years old and has a very good 126 OPS+ in his first full Major League season after finishing 7th in Rookie of the Year voting last season after playing in just 98 games. Cruz, who is a five tool player, had 15 doubles, seven triples, 13 homers, 44 RBI and 35 steals.
This season he leads MLB with his very impressive 40 steals (basically one third of his team’s total amount of steals) in just 84 games this season. He also has 16 doubles, five triples, 14 homers and 37 RBI. He has a .342 OBP and an .810 OPS, which are both much better than the .300 OBP and the .710 OPS he had as a rookie last season. The player in second place in steals this season in MLB has 12 fewer steals than Cruz has. The player who is in second place is the Brewers’ Brice Turang.
Cruz is not someone you would immediately expect to lead the league in steals since he is 6'5". He has had eight games so far this season with more than one steal, which includes a season-high of four steals on May 16 against the Dodgers in a game the Reds won 7–2. He had an impressive two steals in three consecutive games from May 8–10.
The Yankees will need to pay extra attention to Cruz and have their pitchers pitch out or increase the speed of their delivery to give the catcher a better chance. Neither Jose Trevino or Austin Wells have the best arm for throwing out runners.
The Yankees are coming into the Reds series having split their series in Toronto against the Blue Jays. Before that series, the Yankees had lost their previous four series and went 3–8 in those 11 games. Even though the Yankees have gone 5–10 in their last 15 games, they are still tied with the Orioles for first place in the AL East going into this series.
It is a good sign that DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres both showed signs of improving after previously struggling at the plate and the Yankees hope that improvement continues in the Reds series.
LeMahieu went 3–12 with two extra base hits against the Blue Jays after not having an extra base hit in his first 23 games this season and going 4–27 in his previous nine games coming into the Toronto series. Torres, who was benched for two games coming into the Toronto series, went 6–13 in his three games in Toronto. In his previous previous nine games, Torres went just 2–29.
