1. There’s a pretty simply flowchart you can use to determine if the Yankees won or lost on a given night.

Did Ben Rice or Aaron Judge hit a home run?

If yes, the Yankees won. If no, continue.

Did the starting pitcher pitch into the seventh inning and allow two runs or fewer?

If yes, the Yankees won. If no, the Yankees lost.

That’s it. That’s all you need to determine if the Yankees won. On Friday against the Orioles, Rice hit a three-run home run in the second inning and Will Warren gave them 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. So yes, the Yankees won, beating the Orioles 7-2.

2. “The stuff has been excellent,” Aaron Boone said of Warren. “The strike-throwing is there … You see all the swings and misses.”

Warren struck out nine Orioles and walked one. The only run he allowed came on a Pete Alonso solo home run in the second inning. In terms of American League ranks, Warren is now seventh in ERA (2.39), 17th in innings pitched (37.2), 22nd in hits (32), 17th in home runs (4), sixth in walks (8) and fourth in strikeouts (46). Not bad for a “third” starter who is about to become the team’s “fifth” starter and is still battling for that role every time he takes the mound.

3. “I think we are going to have the best staff in all of baseball,” Warren said about the return of Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole. “When they come back, the best pitchers are going to pitch the majority of the innings. I have to make sure I can go out there and do my job.”

The Yankees already have the best staff in all of baseball, 1 through 4. Cam Schlittler, Max Fried and Warren are all in the top 7 in the majors in ERA. Schlittler, Warren and Ryan Weathers are all in the top 9 in the majors in strikeouts. The Yankees have the lowest team ERA in the majors.

4. Again, the Yankees continue to stack wins and have an AL-best record of 21-11 because of their starting pitching. The offense remains the Rice and Judge show with some Jose Caballero and Amed Rosario mixed in and moments from Cody Bellinger. On Friday, it was Rice’s latest blast off a lefty that carried the offense, while Judge reached base four times, Caballero had a solo home run, Rosario had an RBI single and Bellinger added a pair of doubles. Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells and Trent Grisham combined to go 3-for-15 with two walks. The evaluation of the offense checks out.

5. There is this narrative that the Yankees are operating with urgency this season compared to past seasons. The examples being used are the quick benching of Ryan McMahon, the increased playing time for Rosario and the recent DFA of Randal Grichuk. I don’t believe any of those moves represent urgency. McMahon looked like a random fan picked out of the stands swinging a bat against major-league pitching in the first two weeks of the season and could no longer be played with regularity. Rosario earned his playing time with timely hits and home runs in place of McMahon. Grichuk was always going to be the odd man out unless he went completely off against lefties and he didn’t. I don’t think this is urgency; it’s more of favoritism. The reason the Yankees delayed a benching of Josh Donaldson a couple years ago and were quick to bench McMahon is because they loved Donaldson and because this time they had a worthy option in Rosario. The reason Grichuk was DFA’d instead of Goldschmidt, who provides no value, is because Goldschmidt was a Yankee last season and despite proving to be washed since the start of May last year through the start of May this year, the Yankees clearly value his veteran presence, and it’s possible he’s a Judge guy the way Anthony Rizzo, Alex Verdugo and DJ LeMahieu were.

6. We’ll find out just how much urgency the Yankees are operating with on Monday when Anthony Volpe’s rehab is over and the Yankees have to choose between bringing him up or sending him now. If the Yankees bring him up, we’ll know there’s no urgency and they’re operating the same as they ever have. If they send him down, we’ll know the Yankees are finally willing to make a decision they failed to make in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Caballero leads all shortstops in defensive runs saved. He makes throws from the deepest part of the position effortlessly and doesn’t need to put his whole body into every throw just to get it across the infield. He leads the league in steals and has been an above-league-average hitter with a 102 OPS+. If Volpe had the kind of late-March, April and early-May start that Caballero had, we would be hearing about nine-year extension talks.

7. Meanwhile, Volpe has a .733 OPS at Triple-A and a .646 OPS at Double-A during his rehab games. He has one extra-base hit in 40 plate appearances. This isn’t a proven major leaguer working on things to get ready for his activation. This is a failed major leaguer trying to figure things out because he still needs to figure things out. Not only is Volpe not hitting in the minors, but video of his defense is startling and the video of him getting picked off at first base by a catcher is disturbing.

There will be plenty to write about what could be a disastrous and detrimental decision to the 2026 Yankees depending on what is actually decided on Monday. But there’s only two days left between now and then and I’m already preparing myself to accept that nothing has changed with Volpe and how the Yankees treat him compared to every other player in the organization.

8. Jasson Dominguez — who has had to earn every second he has been a part of the major-league roster — appears to have avoided injury after the inconclusive X-rays taken in Texas were followed by a conclusive CT scan in New York. Boone said Dominguez was available off the bench on Friday, so I’m thinking he’s going to start against the right-handed Ryan Bradish on Saturday.

9. Bradish is a good pitcher and has always been tough against the Yankees. Look at last September when the Orioles had nothing to play for and the Yankees were trying to win the division. He threw six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts against them on September 21 and then a week later struck out eight Yankees in four innings with them clearly unable to make an adjustment despite having seen the same pitcher twice in seven days. Bradish has been OK in six starts this season, but he did get roughed up a little by the abysmal Red Sox offense in his last start and allowed 13 baserunners in 5 1/3 innings to the also-abysmal Royals offense in the start before that. (That likely means he’s going seven scoreless against the Yankees on Saturday.)

10. Ryan Weathers gets the ball for the Yankees. Weathers has been very good and is still likely to lose his rotation spot soon, unless someone else gets injured or the Yankees decide to use a six-man rotation to keep everyone as fresh as possible. Weathers’ job on Saturday will be to keep Alonso and Tyler O’Neill in the park, and if he can do that and either Rice or Judge go deep, I like the Yankees’ chances.

1. Nearly a year ago, on May 22, the Yankees won a 1-0 weekday afternoon, getaway day game over the Rangers at Yankee Stadium. The one run in that game was a Jorbit Vivas solo home run — the only home run of his career. It came against Nathan Eovaldi, who otherwise shut the Yankees down for six innings.

Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to the Rangers felt a lot like that game in terms of Eovaldi’s performance and the Yankees’ offense being lifeless against him. The Yankees managed five hits — all singles — in the shutout loss, further proving that if Ben Rice and Aaron Judge don’t hit the ball over the wall, the offense is in a world of shit.

2. Rice had three of the Yankees’ five hits, Cody Bellinger had one and Jose Caballero picked up an infield single. The rest of the Yankees went 0-for-26 with a walk and eight strikeouts. If that sounds familiar it’s because in Tuesday’s game, the Yankees not named Bellinger, Judge and Austin Wells went 0-for-26.

3. Even with the loss, the Yankees finished their nine-game road trip with a 7-2 record, winning all three series against the Red Sox, Astros and Rangers. In seven of the nine games the offense scored four runs or fewer. The wins were stacked because of the starting pitching, not the bats.

4. I thought Wednesday’s game was a good spot for Elmer Rodriguez to make his major-league debut, considering the Rangers’ offense isn’t very good. But it was Rodriguez who wasn’t very good. Not everyone can come up and be Cam Schlittler and it’s not like he was Greg Weissert-debut bad walking and hitting everyone, throwing balls to the backstop and committing balks. The scouting report on Rodriguez was a great fastball and extremely good command. Instead, Rodriguez walked four, hit Alejandro Osuna and nearly hit Osuna twice (the Rangers unsuccessfully challenged the near-hit by pitch). There was traffic on the bases throughout Rodriguez’s four-plus innings and after escaping jams in the first and second innings, he wasn’t able to escape a third jam in the fifth. He left the game with two runs in and two on and no outs in the fifth.

“Obviously, not the results [I wanted],” Rodriguez said. “I feel like I needed to execute a little bit better.”

5. It didn’t matter if Rodriguez recorded just the 12 outs he recorded, or if he pitched into the eighth inning because the offense gave a textbook getaway-day-at-the-end-of-a-nine-game-road-trip effort. Eovaldi got blasted by the Athletics five days earlier and had pitched well in just two of his six starts this season, but that didn’t stop him from mowing down the Yankees like he always has since leaving them.

6. Eovaldi didn’t go to a three-ball count in the game until he faced Trent Grisham with two outs in the fifth. Grisham did nothing with that count on his way to another 0-for-4 day. Grisham finished April with two multi-hit games in the month. His on-base percentage is down to .298, and yet, there’s no end in sight of him batting leadoff ahead of Rice and Judge. Why not just move Rice and Judge each up one place in the lineup? That makes too much sense for someone as dense, stubborn and clueless as Aaron Boone. The idea that the Yankees are giving the most possible plate appearances to Grisham and his .610 OPS is rather ridiculous.

7. With Randal Grichuk getting designated for assignment it seemed like this really may be the chance for Jasson Dominguez to steal playing time from Grisham. Unfortunately, Dominguez got drilled by Eovaldi and had to leave the game. More reason to despise Eovaldi. Dominguez has had some really bad injury luck. If not for tearing his elbow near the end of the 2023 season, he would have gone into 2024 as a starter, and the Yankees don’t idiotically trade for and play Alex Verdugo. Now seemingly about to be a part of the team after spending an unnecessary month in Triple-A, Dominguez gets hit by a pitch that forces him out of a game and who knows the extent of the injury after initial X-rays were “inconclusive.” Who reads the Yankees’ X-rays? A radiologist or Boone?

8. Not only did Grichuk get DFA’d, but George Lombard Jr. was promoted to Triple-A. Lombard hit .312/.400/.571 in 20 games at Double-A this season. The resolution to the failed Anthony Volpe experiment is now one level away from the majors. That’s a good thing because the Yankees need capable bats and Lombard Jr. looks like he could really be one.

9. The Yankees aren’t winning a championship with Grisham reverting back to his pre-2025 self, Jazz Chisholm swinging for the fences with every swing in any count and any situation and Ryan McMahon having a better chance of reaching base if he goes to the plate without a bat. Add in the inevitable benching of Jose Caballero for Volpe and the Yankees will be playing with close to half of the lineup being an automatic each game. Rice and Judge will have to really replicate the Juan Soto-Judge combination of two years ago to make up for all of the dead wood in the lineup.

10. I don’t expect anything to change with the lineup this weekend against the Orioles because Boone makes the lineup and he likely sees a 20-11 record and thinks nothing needs to change. He doesn’t see that record for what it is, which is the Yankees boasting the best 1-2 rotation punch in the league with Schlittler and Max Fried and the best 1-2 lineup punch in the league with Rice and Judge. Will Warren and Ryan Weathers have been good, Caballero (who again is about to be benched) is playing above his career slash line and Tim Hill and Brent Headrick have been reliable, but that’s about it in terms of secondary contributions throughout the roster.

1. Jacob deGrom had to be feeling like he was still a Met on Tuesday night against the Yankees. The soon-to-be 37-year-old righty went six innings, allowed three baserunners and one earned run and took the loss in a 3-2 Yankees win. He took the loss because Cam Schlittler was better than deGrom, as he continues to have the type of early-career success deGrom once had.

“He embraces every opportunity,” Aaron Judge said of Schlittler. “He wants to be in the moment. He’s not scared. There’s no fear.”

2. It was Schlittler’s fourth start with no earned runs in seven starts this year. His ERA is down to 1.51 and he leads the league in strikeouts (49) and the majors in FIP (1.52), WHIP (0.744), walks per nine innings (1.3) and strikeouts per walk (8.17).

“He’s a superstar,” Fernando Cruz said. “What he’s doing is really impressive — throwing three pitches at one speed — but they’re going in different directions.”

3. Last week, Michael Kay made a comment about the Yankees’ rotation and how once Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole come back that Schlittler will be quite the No. 4 starter. No. 4? He’s the No. 1. He’s the best pitcher on the team. He’s the best pitcher in the league! I don’t care who has more service time or what anyone’s salary is, Schlittler would be my choice to get the ball for Game 1 of the playoffs right now. We saw what he did in the playoffs last year, and we have seen what Max Fried, Rodon and Cole have done in their careers in the playoffs. It’s no contest. To think Schlittler is the team’s No. 4 is simply a joke.

4. The Yankees won for the second straight night against the Rangers the way they always seem to win: dominant starting pitching and the long ball. Schlittler gave them six scoreless innings and the Yankees hit two home runs: one from Austin Wells and one from Judge. Their other run came on a first-inning double from Cody Bellinger that hit the highest part of the wall in right-center. The offense was the double from Bellinger and the home runs from Wells and Judge. The Yankees went 5-for-33 in the game with no walks and those three had all five hits. The other six hitters in the lineup went 0-for-26.

5. Here is how the Yankees have scored their seven runs in Arlington:

Two-run home run
Solo home run
Solo home run
Double off the highest part of the wall
Solo home run
Solo home run

The Yankees lead the American League with 48 home runs (the next closest team is the Angels with 40) and also lead the majors (the next closest team is the Dodgers with 45.) The Bronx Bombers, indeed.

6. The Rangers had their chances to take a lead in the game and win it late. They drew two walks against Schlittler, which is impressive considering he had walked four total in his six other starts, they put two on against Brent Headrick, two more on against Cruz in the eighth and scored a run and had the winning run on base against David Bednar in the ninth. The play Cruz made on the really dumb sacrifice bunt attempt from Joc Pederson was amazing. It wasn’t amazing that he slid during the play, but it was amazing that he was able to make an accurate throw to third in time to get the lead runner for the first out of the inning and likely save the game.

7. As for Bednar, here is what I wrote about him after Monday’s game:

Michael Scott describing Andy Bernard is how I would summarize my confidence level with Bednar: “Pros: I trust him … Cons: I don’t really trust him.”

Bednar delivered nearly the same performance on Tuesday that he produced on Monday, including being hurt by another infield error as well. Instead of having two outs with no one on, Bednar was faced with one out and one on after Ryan McMahon bobbled a ground ball and then made a poor throw. If you’re going to post a .539 OPS, you’re going to need to make every play at third base. Danny Jansen followed with a run-scoring triple because why wouldn’t he as someone who has made a career off of big hits against the Yankees. Bednar then hit Brandon Nimmo with a 1-2 pitch to put the tying run on base. He threw five straight splitters to Josh Jung and Jung hit the fifth one for an RBI single to make it 3-2. With Corey Seager up with one out and the winning run on base I envisioned a double in the right-center gap or a three-run home run for a Rangers walk-off win. Bednar managed to get a ground ball from Seager for a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

8. Bednar finished the game throwing seven straight splitters and 10 of his final pitches were splitters. Just five of his 22 pitches were fastballs. I hate having a closer whose best pitch isn’t a fastball. We just went through this last season with Devin Williams. The Yankees’ philosophy that if you have an elite non-fastball pitch you should throw it over and over and over is tiresome. We saw what happened with Tommy Kahnle throwing only changeups in the 2024 World Series. We saw Williams lose his closer role because of the same approach and now we’re watching Bednar throw mostly splitters with some curveballs and almost no fastballs. Bednar will undoubtedly be unavailable on Wednesday and with the day off on Thursday he won’t pitch against until the Orioles series if he’s needed. Hopefully he’s not needed because the Yankees have blown out the Orioles, but if he is, hopefully he has better command or is more willing to go to his fastball.

9. Elmer Rodriguez will make his major-league debut on Wednesday against the Rangers. His line in four Triple-A starts this season: 21.1 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 BB, 20 K, 1 HR. I’m excited to see what someone from the minors can do that isn’t named Luis Gil. It’s a great spot for the righty to make his debut, coming against a Rangers team with an extremely top-heavy lineup. It’s a good way for him to get his feet and for the rest of the rotation to get an extra day of rest built into this time through.

10. The Yankees will face Nathan Eovaldi who is always the starting pitcher on my annual All-Animosity Team. Here is what I wrote about Eovaldi for last year’s team:

Never trust a pitcher who throws triple-digit fastballs and has trouble striking hitters out, which is what Eovaldi was with the Yankees and has mostly been in his career. The Dodgers gave up on him and then the Marlins gave up on him. The Yankees thought they could be the ones to hone his incredible velocity, but they weren’t.

As a Yankee in 2015, Eovaldi pitched to a 14-3 record, so every idiot who relies on wins and losses to determine a pitcher’s success thought he had a great season. It didn’t matter that he received 5.75 runs of support per start or that he routinely struggled to get through five innings because he needed 20-plus pitches to get through each inning. In 2016, it was more of the same. Eovaldi pitched to a 4.76 ERA over 21 starts and 24 games before being shut down for another Tommy John surgery, ending his time with the Yankees as they let him walk after the season.

Eovaldi returned to the mound in 2018 and pitched well with the Rays and was traded to the Red Sox. He went on to shut out the Yankees in an important August series for the division lead and shut them out again in September. He did it again in October (even if he received more run support than any opposing starter had received in a postseason game at Yankee Stadium in history).

In 2018, Eovaldi beat the Yankees and Astros in the playoffs, mixed in a few relief appearances and then became a hero for his bullpen work in Game 3 of the World Series (even though he took the loss after giving up a walk-off home run). Eovaldi helped the Red Sox win the World Series and five years later helped the Rangers win it all after earning five wins in six starts in the 2023 postseason.

The only thing that could possibly make ending a nine-game road trip on a three-game winning streak and with an 8-1 going into a scheduled day off, even better is if it were to come at the expense of Eovaldi. The Yankees have the chance to board the plane home happy and put a smile on the faces of all of their fans going into the weekend by beating “Nasty Nate” who was never “nasty” as a Yankee.

1. I miss watching Juan Soto play for the Yankees every day, but Ben Rice is doing all he can to fill that void. Rice hit his 10th home run of the season on Monday night in Arlington to give the Yankees a two-run lead in the third inning in an eventual 4-2 win over the Rangers.

“It’s must-watch TV at this point, when he steps to the plate,” Aaron Judge said of Rice. “He’s going to put something in play hard, or he’s going to take his walk and pass the baton. It’s impressive to watch.”

2. Rice is up to 10 home runs, 23 RBIs and a .322/.447/.744 slash line with 21 walks in 28 games. He has become what Soto was for the Yankees in his lone season in pinstripes. He has become the offensive force to complement Judge that the Yankees were missing before Soto arrived and again last year after he left.

“I get a front-row seat hitting right behind him now,” Judge said. “It makes my job easy.”

3. Judge followed Rice’s two-run homer with a solo shot of his own as part of a 3-for-3 night that also included a pair of doubles.

“I couldn’t let him catch me in homers,” Judge said of his 11th immediately following Rice’s 10th. “I had to make sure I got one after that.”

Judge is tied for second in the majors in home runs with Yordan Alvarez and Rice is right behind them. They have the most home runs of any two teammates in baseball and are second (Rice) and third (Judge) in OPS behind Alvarez.

“I’m glad I don’t have to face them,” Max Fried said. “Those are two of the best hitters in the game.”

4. Fried put together another scoreless start (6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) to lower his ERA to 2.09 and extend his league-leading innings total to 47 1/3 innings. He continued pitching out of the stretch after abandoning his windup in Boston last Wednesday.

“It’s not like I’ll never do it again,” Fried said of his windup, “but we’ll give it some time.”

5. Camilo Doval entered in relief of Fried for the seventh and allowed a home run to make it a 4-1 game. Doval has allowed earned runs in three of his last four outings and home runs in those three outings. A four-run game is too close of a score for him to be pitching in.

Tim Hill pitched the eighth and walked two — his first two walks of the year — before eventually getting out of a bases-loaded jam.

6. David Bednar closed it out in the ninth but made it uncomfortable the way he seems to always do, though he did need to get four outs in the inning, thanks to a Jazz Chisholm error. Michael Scott describing Andy Bernard is how I would summarize my confidence level with Bednar: “Pros: I trust him … Cons: I don’t really trust him.” The Rangers scored an unearned run off Bednar.

7. Trent Grisham went 1-for-4 with a walk, Jazz Chisholm added his third home run of the season (all coming over the last five games), Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4 (he has a .488 OPS over the last eight games), Jasson Dominguez went 1-for-4 in his return to the majors, Austin Wells went 0-for-3 with a walk and Ryan McMahon and Jose Caballero both had singles. As long as Rice and Judge recreate what Soto and Judge did two years ago, there’s no need for anyone else to do much, and they haven’t, other than chipping in here and there. But aside from Bellinger who hasn’t hit much since the Saturday blowout of the Royals, everyone is the lineup is trending in the right direction.

8. It was good to see Dominguez back in the bigs. He ripped a line drive just foul down the right-field line in his first at-bat before eventually picking up a single in his third at-bat. Dominguez belongs. He belongs playing every day in the majors and batting leadoff (at least against right-handers), but instead, he’ll likely go back to Triple-A after Wednesday’s game.

9. Caballero went into Saturday’s game against the Astros 9-for-9 in stolen base attempts before getting caught twice in that game. He had a steal on Sunday and then got caught twice again on Monday. He’s now 11-for-15 this season, but for 1-for-5 since Saturday. The opposition seems to be aware he’s going to run on the first pitch and they’re getting him. Jack Leiter’s pickoff of him was the first of Leiter’s career.

10. Tuesday’s game features Cam Schlittler against Jacob deGrom. Schlittler is off to a deGrom-like start to his career, while deGrom is having a typical outstanding season as he approaches his 37th birthday. The Rangers have never faced Schlittler, and while it hasn’t mattered if a team has faced Schlittler or not so far in his career as he has been dominant against everyone, teams that have yet to face him really struggle against him. There are a few Yankees with decent numbers against deGrom: Bellinger, McMahon and Randal Grichuk have all homered off him twice and Chisholm has also homered off him. It’s too bad Giancarlo Stanton is now on the injured list as he is 9-for-27 with four home runs in his career against deGrom.

1. Allowing Luis Gil to start against the Astros was very much a wave-the-white-flag, eat-some-innings game. After fooling some with his performance at Fenway Park on Monday, all of the underlying numbers suggested Gil would get blasted by an offense that doesn’t have the worst team OPS in the American League. Sure enough, the Astros teed off on him and ended the Yankees’ eight-game winning streak.

2. Immediately after allowing eight baserunners, six earned runs and two home runs in just four innings (without recording a strikeout), Gil was sent back to Triple-A with a 6.05 ERA, diminished velocity and no way to get major-league hitters out unless their high-exit-velocity line drives are hit right at a fielder. For the fourth straight start, Gil had no clue where the ball was going when it left his hand and for the second straight start he only generated three whiffs.

3. “He struggled to get swing-and-miss again,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s just been struggling to get consistency with his delivery and fastball profile.”

And yet, the Yankees let him start four games this season. In the four-game stint, Gil allowed six home runs in 19 1/3 innings with 11 walks to just nine strikeouts. The Yankees managed to go 2-2 in the four starts because of their miracle walk-off win against the Angels built off a dropped pop-up and because Gil got to face a team that fired their entire dugout staff, partly because they were unable to hit him.

4. I don’t know what’s next for Gil. The pitcher we saw in 2024 seemed to have disappeared when he returned from the lat injury at the end of 2025, and the pitcher he is in 2026 is nowhere close to who he was last year, let alone two years ago. He’s buried on the starting pitching depth chart now and will be further buried when Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole return. And if the Yankees need a spot starter or a rotation member at some point this season, it would be appalling if it’s him with his current stuff.

5. Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough ate up the final four innings in a blah game that saw the offense fold against the only good starter in the Astros’ rotation. Trent Grisham and Ben Rice went 0-for-7 with a walk at the top of the order, Aaron Judge failed to get the big hit in the third inning with two on and two out but did manage to hit a meaningless home run down seven runs in the sixth, Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4, Jazz Chisholm went 2-for-4 and lost another ridiculous challenge, Paul Goldschmidt went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles to ensure he won’t be the odd man out when a roster spot is needed, J.C. Escarra went 1-for-4 with an RBI double, Ryan McMahon went 1-for-4 with an RBI single and Jose Caballero went 0-for-3. It was one of those all-around crappy games that’s part of a 162-game season.

6. Chisholm’s challenge privileges need to be revoked as he’s now 1-for-7 this year with them. Caballero’s privileges should be called into question as well and Rice isn’t too far behind. Offensively, the Yankees challenge pitches in extremely low-leverage situations and it needs to be resolved. Too many times they are challenging pitches that are blatant strikes and too many times they are wasting their challenges in the early innings in ill-advised spots.

7. Jasson Dominguez was called up after the game, presumably to be the designated hitter the next three days against the Rangers and three right-handed starters. Dominguez has hit .326/.415/.478 at Triple-A with five doubles, three home runs and 15 RBIs in 24 games. He has an .889 OPS over 77 games and three different seasons at Triple-A. There’s nothing left for him to accomplish in the minors offensively. He’s a major leaguer and will once again be one on Monday night against the Rangers.

8. The Yankees will face Jack Leiter, who has struggled of late. After two strong starts against the Orioles and Reds to begin the season (11 IP, 3 ER, 17 K), Leiter has pitched to a 6.91 ERA over his last three starts against the Dodgers, Athletics and Pirates, allowing 27 baserunners in 14 1/3 innings. Like Arrighetti on Sunday, Leiter has a penchant for walks, and the Yankees will need to take advantage of that, which they didn’t do in the series finale in Houston with just one walk in the game.

9. Max Fried gets the ball for the Yankees, coming off his eight-shutout-innings performance against the Red Sox. The Rangers aren’t very good offensively (fourth-worst team OPS in the AL), and like the Yankees, they have a very top-heavy lineup. Fortunately, for Fried, the Rangers’ best hitters are left-handed in Corey Seager and Brandon Nimmo, but Josh Jung and Jake Burger are potential problems.

10. We’re still waiting to see the best version of Fried this year, which is crazy to think, considering he’s the league leader in innings pitched, has a 2.40 ERA and a sparkling 0.774 WHIP, but it’s true. Fried has struggled with his command, especially out of the windup, and prior to shutting down the Red Sox (which is no real feat given Gil shut them out for 6 1/3 innings), the Yankees had lost his three previous starts. I expect Fried to pitch well on Monday because I always expect him to pitch well and because he’s too good not to make the necessary adjustments that have him somewhat off this season.