Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies 6/23

The New York Yankees continue their three game set with the Philadelphia Phillies this week when they play host to Chase Utley and the Phillies for the second of a three game set tonight in the Bronx. The Yankees will send CC Sabathia to the mound tonight to face off with the Phillies starter Sean O’Sullivan. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

• Sabathia has faced off with the Phillies four times in his career in the regular season and owns a 2-1 record against them. Sabathia also faced them twice in the 2009 World Series taking the loss in Game One and the victory in Game Four. Sabathia is coming off a start against the Miami Marlins where he went six innings allowing three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts in a loss for the Yankees in Miami.

• O’Sullivan is coming off probably the best pitching performance of his 2015 season where he pitched five innings against the Baltimore Orioles in a victory. O’Sullivan struck out a career-high seven batters in the contest, a trend that hopefully does not continue tonight in the Bronx.

These are games that the New York Yankees need to take advantage of if they want to win the American League East division race in 2015. The Tampa Bay Rays are playing about as well as any team while the Toronto Blue Jays have seemingly forgotten how to lose making every winnable game for New York bigger than it should be for June baseball. The Phillies and teams like them, record wise, are teams that the Yankees absolutely have to pick off and take advantage of because that’s what good teams do. The Yankees are a good team, Go Yankees!