Here comes Aaron Judge and the Yankees

(News4usonline) – This should be magical. Dodgers. Yankees. Aaron Judge against the Dodgers pitchers. Two of the mythical and storied teams in Major League Baseball will hit it off for three games at Dodger Stadium, beginning Friday.

And with this early titanic matchup, comes Judge, the guy who broke the American League home run record for a single season last year.

Judge, blasted 62 home runs last season, the most by any American League hitter, surpassing the long-held mark by Roger Maris. So the seats at Ceasar Ravine are going to be full. When the Yankees come to town, it’s a big deal in a lot of ways. It doesn’t matter if neither the Dodgers nor the Yankees are in first place in their respective divisions.

The Dodgers, coming off a six-game homestand where won three and lost three, are in second place in the National League West Division. The Yankees trail Tampa Bay and Baltimore in the American League East Division. So what. These are the Yankees. They’ll be making a postseason surge soon enough when the fall rolls around.

And they have perhaps the biggest bat in the league in Judge. For the record, Judge hit 62 home runs, drove in 131 runs, and hit at a .311 clip last season. This season, Judge is following up on what he did last year with a bravo performance. So far, Judge has hit 18 home runs and has recorded 50 RBIs. He is also still hitting around .300 (.298). He’s on pace to hit at least 50 home runs.

But of course, if he gets hot, there is no questions that Judge can go for the 60 home run mark again. As for the Dodgers, this series will give the team another test to go through. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has his team playing better than what they did coming out of the gate at the beginning of the season.

For the Dodgers, everything begins and ends with their pitching. That starts with veteran Clayton Kershaw, who will lead off the series for the Dodgers. Kershaw still has the mustard with 75 Ks, but he also has a 3.32 ERA and a 6-4 record coming into the first game of the series.

The Yankees will get back starter Domingo German, who was suspended for 10 games following his use of an illegal substance. German is expected to pitch the third and final game of the series on Sunday. When it comes to hitting and pitching this season, the Dodgers have been a mixed bag.

The Dodgers are No. 2 in the league in the hitting category. However, their pitching, the staple of the team’s success over the past few seasons, has been awash this year. The Dodgers are No. 22 in the league in pitching. Julio Urias, who took over as ace of the team, is out with an injury, and hasn’t looked like himself this season. Dustin May is out as well. The Dodgers starting pitching rotation this season been looking unrecognizable.

The one constant that has elevated the Dodgers this season has been the way they have been hitting the baseball. First baseman Freddie Freeman and his 20-game hitting streak has helped the ballclub tremendously. Without Freeman connecting the dots from ball to bat, the Dodgers might be a little further down in the division standings. All of that goes out the window when the Dodgers and Yankees get together. This is the first time the two teams will face off against one another since 2019.