First pitch: Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET
Line: N/A, Total: N/A

The Yankees will be trying to keep their hopes to win the AL East alive with a victory on Sunday.

The Yankees had a big four-game series against the Indians last week, but they ended up really hurting themselves by getting swept in that one. New York is now in a situation where it might miss out on the postseason altogether, which is pretty incredible after seeing where they were just a few weeks ago. It was once a near-lock that they’d at least earn the top wild card spot in the American League, but teams like the Twins, Angels, and Orioles are all right there with them. Having said that, there is a lot of baseball to play and the Yankees can make up ground in the division with every win over the Sox that they can get. That makes this Sunday night matchup gigantic and that is why you’ll see the aces for both teams on the mound in this one. The Red Sox are sending LHP Chris Sale (15-6, 2.77 ERA, 264 K) to the hill for this national television matchup and the Yankees are countering with RHP Luis Severino (11-6, 3.14 ERA, 192 K). Both guys have been remarkable throughout the course of this entire season, so don’t be shocked if this is very low scoring.

The last time Chris Sale pitched in Yankee Stadium was on Aug. 13, when he pitched seven innings of one-run ball and struck out a ridiculous 12 batters. This is not an easy ballpark to pitch in, but it clearly didn’t get to Sale in that outing. He’ll hope to replicate that performance here and it’s hard to say he’s going to have trouble doing that. He was brilliant in his last trip to the mound, as he threw seven innings of shutout ball against the Blue Jays on Aug. 29. Sale struck out 11 batters in that game and he only gave up three hits. You can say pretty safely that the lefty is in a groove coming into this one. As for Boston’s offense, OF Andrew Benintendi should be able to jumpstart the team a bit here. Benintendi has absolutely crushed Severino in his career, as he is 6-for-11 with a double, two homers, and seven RBI against him. He clearly likes something that he sees when facing the righty and will do his best to drive in some more runs in this game.

The Yankees are sending Luis Severino to the mound on Sunday and he’ll do his best to outduel Sale in this one. Severino has bounced back from a miserable year in 2016 to become one of the best pitchers in the American League. The righty has, however, been lousy when pitching at home this year. He is just 5-5 with a 4.14 ERA at Yankee Stadium, which is significantly worse than his 6-1 record with a 2.32 ERA when pitching on the road. He’ll need to find a way to lock in and perform at a high level in this one because it’s not likely that Sale will struggle here. On offense, the Yankees will be hoping that OF Aaron Hicks can keep up his success against Sale. Hicks is 8-for-23 with two doubles against Sale in his career, which makes him more successful than anybody else on the team is against the lefty. It’d be big if he can come through for them in a big spot here.