New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates meet in game 2 of series

Pittsburgh Pirates (52-49, third in the NL Central) vs. New York Yankees (56-44, second in the AL East)

New York; Wednesday, 1:05 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Pirates: Mitch Keller (6-7, 5.14 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 77 strikeouts); Yankees: Gerrit Cole (3-5, 3.93 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 55 strikeouts)

LINE: Yankees -175, Pirates +143; over/under is 8 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The New York Yankees play the Pittsburgh Pirates, leading the series 1-0.

New York is 56-44 overall and 25-22 at home. Yankees hitters have a collective .423 slugging percentage to rank fourth in the majors.

Pittsburgh has a 25-25 record in road games and a 52-49 record overall. The Pirates rank ninth in MLB play with 130 total home runs, averaging 1.3 per game.

The teams play Wednesday for the second time this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Ben Rice leads the Yankees with a .281 batting average, and has 17 doubles, three triples, 29 home runs, 49 walks and 68 RBIs. Cody Bellinger is 12 for 38 with two RBIs over the last 10 games.

Brandon Lowe leads the Pirates with 21 home runs while slugging .478. Esmerlyn Valdez is 11 for 37 with seven home runs and 17 RBIs over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Yankees: 6-4, .267 batting average, 3.68 ERA, outscored opponents by six runs

Pirates: 6-4, .271 batting average, 4.49 ERA, outscored opponents by 18 runs

INJURIES: Yankees: Aaron Judge: 60-Day IL (rib), Carlos Rodon: 15-Day IL (elbow), Max Fried: 15-Day IL (elbow), Giancarlo Stanton: 10-Day IL (leg), Clarke Schmidt: 60-Day IL (elbow)

Pirates: Oneil Cruz: 60-Day IL (hand), Endy Rodriguez: 10-Day IL (lower body), Spencer Horwitz: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Evan Sisk: 15-Day IL (elbow), Konnor Griffin: 60-Day IL (finger), Chris Devenski: 60-Day IL (illness)

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.