Texas Rangers “Eye on the Enemy”: 3 Yankees storylines worth watching

In exhilarating fashion, the Texas Rangers were able to pull out a victory against Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees during game one of this week’s four-game series. The Rangers bats came to life early against Cole (who exiting the game after allowing a season-high four runs to cross the plate), and Texas starter Jordan Lyles secured his second victory of the 2021 campaign.

It was a promising nine innings of baseball, and it puts the Rangers in good position to either split the series with New York, or even steal the series in its entirety.

Previewing the rest of the Texas Rangers series against NYY.

With that said, I checked in with our friends over at “Yanks Go Yard” to see if there were any specific players and/or storylines worth keeping an eye on over the next three games.

Here’s what they had to say:

Stanton injury/shaky outfield depth.

The first major point of emphasis was placed on the impact of not having Giancarlo Stanton this week, and the overall lack of outfield depth that follows.

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Stanton has a long history of battling injuries since making the switch from Miami to New York, and the Yankees undoubtedly miss him every time he departs the lineup with an IL stint. Aaron Boone went with Gary Sanchez as the team’s designated hitter in place of Stanton on Monday night, a move that saw Sanchez go 0-4 with three runners on base.

Additionally, center fielder Aaron Hicks is also on the injured list at the moment, leaving the Yankees’ outfield depth in a rather precarious position.

Brett Gardner and Clint Frazier are the next men up when it comes to filling out the outfield, and both players are currently batting sub-.200.

Look for the Texas Rangers pitching staff to continue navigating around guys like Aaron Judge and DJ LeMahieu to instead face the likes of Sanchez, Frazier, and Gardner.