New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels: Will Warren vs. Yusei Kikuchi

· Yahoo Sports

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 08: Will Warren #29 of the New York Yankees throws against the Athletics during the first inning at Yankee Stadium on April 08, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Caean Couto/Getty Images) | Getty Images

There’s a lot of good and bad to the length of MLB’s 162-game season. On one hand, it can be long and arduous, making games at the beginning and end of the year feel much further apart. The season can feel endless if your team is down in the dumps. The benefits are that there’s always something to watch every day, and that individual games over the course of the season are too minuscule for it to make or break a season early on.

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It also means that teams will go on hot streaks where they look unbeatable and cold streaks where you wonder if they will ever end. It’s usually an emotional roller coaster for every team with any aspirations (except the Dodgers, to an extent). With the Yankees on a five-game losing streak, looking as decrepit as possible, it serves them well to get off the schneid at some point. Getting away from a longtime house of horrors and returning home to a nice, warm day in the Bronx might do the trick.

Will Warren will get the ball for his fourth start of the young season to open the series with the Angels. Through three starts, it’s been very Warren-y, as he’s pitched under five innings per start with a good 3 ERA (135 ERA+) and 4.03 FIP. All of his starts have followed a trend, where he’s looked dialed in for two or three innings at a time before unraveling. In his most recent start against the A’s, he fell apart in the fifth after being dialed in through four innings. He’ll look to rectify that and get deeper into tonight’s game, although the bullpen has been in better shape with recent lengthy starts from Max Fried and Ryan Weathers.

Yusei Kikuchi has spent his entire career in the American League, and with that, has plenty of experience against the Yankees. The 34-year-old left-hander is coming off a serviceable 2025 with the Angels, but has struggled to start 2026, with his best start being 4.1 innings of two-run ball against the Astros, while allowing eight hits. This will be his 17th career game against the Yankees, entering with a 3.27 ERA in 74.1 innings. I always remember his first start against them in 2019 for Seattle, where there seemed to be a foreign substance on his cap that the umpires didn’t do anything about in the midst of a brilliant, 7.2-inning outing.

Even as he nears his 35th birthday, Kikuchi’s fastball remains a mid-90s offering, even if he has drastically reduced its usage over the last two years at the expense of throwing more changeups and adding a new cutter. After throwing more sliders than ever in 2025, he’s toned it down in 2026 after it yielded a lot of damage. He’ll lean on his curveball and changeup against righties and look to generate soft contact. His location has been subpar to start the year, and he’s allowed a lot of hard contact, so the Yankees should be looking to swing early and often.

With a lefty on the mound, all the lefty-killers are in the lineup, although none have them have really done damage against southpaw pitching yet. Paul Goldschmidt leads off, playing over the red-hot Ben Rice, followed by Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Giancarlo Stanton. Amed Rosario will start over Ryan McMahon and bat fifth over Jazz Chisholm Jr., while Randal Grichuk gets another start as he looks to finally get a hit. José Caballero and Austin Wells swung the bat better in Tropicana Field, so let’s hope it sparks something at the bottom.

It’s a lot of hot and cold in the Angels’ lineup. Zach Neto leads off, followed by future Hall of Famer Mike Trout, who’s cooled off after a blisteringly hot start. Nolan Schanuel and the sorta-suspended Jorge Soler follow, along with Yoan Moncada, Jo Adell, former Ray Josh Lowe, Logan O’Hoppe, and Adam Frazier, who I am just now learning is still in the league. Old friend Oswald Peraza is available off the bench.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium — New York, NY

First pitch: 7:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES, FanDuel Sports Network West

Radio broadcast: KLAA 830 (LAA), WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY)

Online stream: MLB.tv (out-of-market only), Gotham Sports App

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