Game 124: Yankees vs. Astros

YANKEES (68-55)
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran RF
Greg Bird 1B
Chase Headley 3B
Didi Gregorius SS
Stephen Drew 2B

RHP Nathan Eovaldi (13-2, 4.24)
Eovaldi vs. Astros

ASTROS (69-56)
Jose Altuve 2B
Marwin Gonzalez LF
Carlos Correa SS
Colby Rasmus RF
Carlos Gomez CF
Evan Gattis DH
Luis Valbuena 3B
Chris Carter 1B
Hank Conger C

RHP Scott Feldman (5-5, 4.05)
Feldman vs. Yankees

TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., WPIX and MLB Network

WEATHER: Been nothing but blue skies, but the forecast says there’s a solid chance of rain.

UMPIRES: HP Gabe Morales, 1B Eric Cooper, 2B Sam Holbrook, 3B Tripp Gibson

THE HUNT FOR .200: Stephen Drew enters this game with a .198 batting average for the season, and this might be a good opportunity to get above .200. He’s a career .462/.588/1.231 hitter against Astros starter Scott Feldman.

WHO NEEDS A BATTING AVERAGE: The Yankees have one player in today’s lineup hitting below .242 (that’s Drew, obviously). They have two starters hitting below .252 (Drew and Brian McCann). The Astros, on the other hand, have five starters hitting .236 or below (Rasmus, Gattis, Valbuena, Carter, Conger). Carlos Gomez is hitting .246 for the year but only .188 since coming to Houston.

STREAKING: Nathan Eovaldi has a career-high winning streak going 8-0 with a 3.29 ERA in his past 11 starts. It’s the longest winning streak by a Yankees starters since Ivan Nova went 15-0 from June 10, 2011 to April 20, 2012.

UPDATE, 7:12 p.m.: Six pitches, two strikeouts for Eovaldi. Then a single. Of course.

UPDATE, 7:20 p.m.: Eovaldi settled for three strikeouts on 11 pitches. Alas, the perfect game is gone.

UPDATE, 7:50 p.m.: Three scoreless for Eovaldi.

UPDATE, 8:09 p.m.: Everybody’s raising their batting averages tonight. Stephen Drew is up to .200 after an infield single in the third inning, and now Brian McCann is up to .246 after his second single of the night in the fourth.

UPDATE, 8:53 p.m.: Scoreless game after six innings. Each team has four hits. Not much action, really, but Greg Bird’s heads up play to get Colby Rasmus out in the top of the sixth was big.

UPDATE, 9:10 p.m.: Good throw. Slow runner. McCann is out at the plate. Still scoreless.

UPDATE, 9:18 p.m.: Yet another error by Headley. Not a great job by Bird, either. I think at that point you have to come off the bag and make sure to catch the ball without letting the runner get to second. The error, though, is clearly on Headley.

UPDATE, 9:24 p.m.: Eight scoreless for Eovaldi, who was still hitting 100 mph well beyond his 100th pitch of the night.

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