First pitch: Tuesday, 7:10 p.m. ET
Line: Miami -110, New York +100, Total: 8

The New York Yankees look to rebound from a recent rough stretch when they take on the Miami Marlins in the second of two games in Florida.

The Yankees have been a very streaky team this year, and after rattling off seven straight wins against the likes of Seattle, Los Angeles Angels and Washington, they have now lost four of their past five games. The recent poor stretch has dropped them a game behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and they followed a series loss in Baltimore with a 2-1 defeat on Monday night. The offense was unable to back Masahiro Tanaka’s solid effort (7 IP, 2 ER, 9 H, 6 K) as they had just three hits in the contest. The only run came off the bat of 1B Mark Teixeira (.256) with a solo homer and he is now first in the AL in both HRs (18) and RBI (48) while going 9-for-21 (.429) with three doubles and a homer in his current six-game hitting streak. Miami has finally begun to play some better baseball of late and come into this one as winners in four of its last five games. Overall in the month of June. they are 8-6 and it is the pitching staff which has been getting it done lately with a mere seven runs allowed in the last five contests (1.4 runs per game). They gave up only three hits to the Yanks on Monday and backed a great performance (7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 5 K) by starter Tom Koehler with 10 hits and a late homer from 2B Derek Dietrich (.400). Much of their offense comes from the bat of OF Giancarlo Stanton (.261) who has a league-leading 23 homers and 59 RBI while going 15-for-37 (.405) with four doubles, five long balls, 12 RBI and eight runs scored in the last 10 games. The pitching battle will be a fun one as the two starters, RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-1, 4.13 ERA) and RHP David Phelps (3-3, 4.11 ERA) were on the opposing team in 2014. Monday’s loss brought New York’s record on the road to an even 18-18 as they face this Marlins group which will pull to even on the year at home with a win after going 16-17 thus far. The two clubs do not meet much and the first contest of this series was the only meeting between the two over the past three seasons. Trends show that Miami is a poor 8-14 (.364) as a home favorite of -110 or higher this year as they are 21-13 (.618) when playing on Tuesday’s over the last two seasons. OFs Jacoby Ellsbury (Knee) and Slade Heathcott (Quad) along with 3B Alex Rodriguez (Rest) are expected to miss this game for New York as 3B Martin Prado (Shoulder) is doubtful and 1B Mike Morse (Finger) is out for Monday’s matchup.

Eovaldi has some of the nastiest pure “stuff” in the business and has a fastball that is averaging a blistering 95.8 MPH this season; the second-highest mark amongst qualified starters in the big leagues. Surprisingly, that has not lead to a wealth of strikeouts as he is mowing down just 6.5 batters per nine innings while showing decent control (2.5 BB/9). The righty is getting batters to hit it on the ground at a career-high rate of 48.5% and is leaving 78.7% of runners on base. The Yanks have now won in seven of his last 10 starts as he has failed to get more than six strikeouts during any of the outings and had just four quality starts during that stretch. This will be his first time seeing his former team as the opposing pitcher but may be upset that 3B Martin Prado is out with an injury as he is a meager 2-for-14 with a homer and two RBI when facing Eovaldi. Besides Stanton, the 25-year-old will need to be careful when taking on 2B Dee Gordon (.352) who ranks second in both batting average and stolen bases (22) in the NL. The Marlins bullpen has gone 9-13 with a 3.71 ERA (1.32 WHIP) and is a meager 11-for-22 (50%) in save chances. A.J. Ramos (1.42 ERA, 9 saves) has three blown saves on the year but has posted an impressive 14:2 K/BB ratio over his last nine appearances (8.2 IP).

Phelps is in the midst of a career season as his control (2.3 BB/9) has improved a ton since his time with New York and has allowed a career-low 0.69 HR/9 in 65.2 innings. With his increase in control has come a decrease in the amount of swings-and-misses that he receives as he is striking out just 6.2 batters per nine innings. Despite his consistent play, the Marlins have lost five of their last six games when Phelps is on the mound, but he is coming off a very impressive showing (8 IP, 0 ER, 4 H 6 K) in a win over Colorado last week. With him being on the Yankees for the beginning of his career, Phelps has yet to oppose them on the mound with his only experience against a New York starter being SS Didi Gregorius who is 0-for-2 with a strikeout in the matchup. The bat that Phelps will need to most watch out for besides Teixeira’s is C Brian McCann (.261) who has gone 10-for-30 (.333) with three doubles, a home run and six RBI over the last nine games. The New York bullpen has managed to go 10-7 with a 3.25 ERA (1.15 WHIP) and have successfully saved 21-of-25 (84%) games. Dellin Betances (0.27 ERA, 3 saves) will get the ninth innings while Andrew Miller is on the DL and he has allowed just one earned run with 11 hits allowed and 55 strikeouts (14.9 K/9) in 33.1 innings of work.