With Pineda, Yankees’ rotation the strongest it’s been all season

The Yankees’ rotation returns to full strength today. In fact, this is probably the strongest the rotation has been all year.

With Michael Pineda ready to come off the disabled list, the Yankees have their five best starting pitchers in place. Had Ivan Nova not crumbled in the first inning last night, all five would have an ERA of 4.00 or lower. Luis Severino is up from the minor leagues, Nathan Eovaldi is on a roll, and now Pineda joins Masahiro Tanaka as the team’s dominant-on-their-best-days headliners.

“We are fighting for the division right now,” Pineda said. “So it’s very exciting to go back to the mound, and I’m very happy for that. … Everybody has responsibility here, and we’re here for playing and winning the game, you know?”

As measured by ERA and WHIP, the Yankees have had a middle-of-the-pack rotation this season. Those team numbers, of course, have been dragged down by CC Sabathia’s rough season, a bad spot start by Bryan Mitchell, and a couple of particularly brutal starts by Eovaldi and Chris Capuano. They’ve also been dragged down by Tanaka and Pineda being not as good as last season. Occasionally they’ve been outstanding. Occasionally they’ve been perfectly hitable.

For the Yankees rotation to be as good as it can be, they need the outstanding version of those two.

“Michael’s pitched pretty well for us this year,” Joe Girardi said. “(Today) you watch the sharpness of his slider. His key is always his slider for me, and you watch the sharpness of his slider. If it’s sharp, you know that he has a chance to have a really good day.”

Pineda acknowledged his slider wasn’t particularly sharp in his first rehab start, but he said it was better last time out. He expects it to be there this afternoon.

“For me, right now, I really want to start pitching good,” Pineda said. “Go back to pitching my good game and continue to help the team.”

Associated Press photo

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