FanGraphs Live! Friday: MLB The Show, Rangers at Yankees, 2 PM ET

In this week’s stream, featuring Paul Sporer, Ben Clemens, and Dan Szymborski, the virtual Texas Rangers and Corey Kluber head to Yankee Stadium to try to prevent the home nine from notching their sixth consecutive win.

The Yankees (58-35) have been in first place in the American League East for most of the season, but the Boston Red Sox, armed with a magically healed Chris Sale, have proven stubborn and the margin remains just 2 1/2 games. Masahiro Tanaka (9-4, 2.80 ERA) is one of four Yankees starting pitchers to have an ERA under four, a group that has had the best ERA among AL rotations overall. The last time a Yankees starter was credited with a loss was Luis Severino back in late June. Hyun-Jin Ryu of the Toronto Blue Jays is slated to start the All-Star Game, but New York’s starters (Tanaka, Severino, and Gerrit Cole) are locks to be on the squad, and Gary Sánchez has a comfortable lead in the All-Star voting for catchers, with a 105,000 more votes than Austin Allen.

The Rangers (39-56) are now 10 1/2 games back for the second Wild Card spot and are rapidly approaching the point where their playoff chances will exist only in purely mathematical terms. In recent weeks, the team has been swept by the Astros, Braves, and Marlins, and dropped two of three to the White Sox. Texas’ offense has been a significant problem all season — the team ranks 25th in the majors in runs scored, Willie Calhoun recently fell below the Mendoza line, and even one-man wrecking crew Joey Gallo is having a down season, hitting .245/.345/.421 for 0.8 WAR. It doesn’t get any easier for Texas after the break, with series against the Twins and Astros; without a good run the next two weeks, the team will become an obvious seller.