NEW YORK —d straight American League East title while the New York Yankees are preventing it from happening and auditioning potential starting pitchers for the wild-card game.So far Preston Tucker Jersey , the Yankees are 2-for-2 in keeping the champagne in storage for their rivals and New York will try to complete the sweep and keep the Red Sox from clinching Thursday night in the finale of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.“We don’t want them to celebrate here and we’re going to do everything we can to not do that,” New York’s Neil Walker said Tuesday.Article continues below ...Walker was responsible for putting the celebration on hold Tuesday by hitting a go-ahead three-run homer off Ryan Brasier in the seventh inning to give the Yankees a 3-2 win. On Wednesday, it was Luke Voit homering in consecutive at-bats off David Price in New York’s 10-1 win.Besides the power resulting in the Yankees tying their single-season record of 245 homers, the first two games can be viewed as part of the competition for who starts Oct. 3. New York’s J.A. Happ allowed an unearned run in six innings Tuesday and Luis Severino followed it by pitching seven innings of one-run ball to win his 18th game on Wednesday.“We’re going to fight to the end,” Severino said. “It doesn’t matter what the score says. They’re going to win 100-something games. We’re going to be behind them. We’re going to grind to the end and every game from here now we’re going to fight to the end.”On Wednesday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed to drop a hint about who might pitch in a wild-card game, and it appears Masahiro Tanaka, who starts Thursday, could be deployed for that start. “We’ve started to talk about it a little bit in earnest the last few days in about where we’re at, what we’re thinking, possibilities and then how these next dozen games or so, whatever we have left, how they play out and how the rotation falls a little bit will all factor into our decision as to who we would pitch in a wild-card scenario, who would we pitch if we were moving on,” Boone said. “Those are things we’re starting to have conversations about and I would say that these next 12 days will play a role in that.”Tanaka enters the audition armed with a 12-5 record and a 3.47 ERA but, more importantly, on a roll. He has won his last three starts and is working on a 20-inning scoreless streak, which is just shy of the 21 1/3-inning scoreless run Tanaka put together from July 15-Aug. 5.Tanaka also has allowed two earned runs or fewer in nine of his last 11 starts Zack Greinke Jersey , posting a 2.15 ERA in that span. Equally important, he has allowed just six homers in his last 71 innings.The right-hander last pitched in Friday’s 11-0 rout of the Toronto Blue Jays when he allowed four hits in six innings.Tanaka is 8-4 with a 4.08 ERA in 17 career starts against the Red Sox and 1-0 with a 6.60 ERA in three starts this season against Boston.The Red Sox (103-49) have lost their third series in the last 22 since the start of July and are trying to avoid three straight losses for the fourth time this year and first instance since Aug. 24-26.“It’s disappointing because what we set to do every series is to win it,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We don’t have a chance to win the series. We’ll show up tomorrow. We know what’s at stake. We’ll try to win a game and make it a happy flight.”Boston has managed three runs in the two games to fall to 2-6 at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox are hitting .244 (129-for-530) this month, with a few hitters slumping of late.Andrew Benintendi is in a 2-for-15 slide, Xander Bogaerts is in a 2-for-14 slump while Mookie Betts has one hit in his last 12 at-bats. Betts went 0-for-4 with a walk as the designated hitter Wednesday after sitting out Tuesday to rest his left side.“There’s a few guys struggling and we’ve faced some good pitching too,” Cora said. “It’s a combination of both. I do think that sometimes we get too passive at the plate. We’re taking too many pitches right in the middle.”Eduardo Rodriguez will make his fourth start since returning from a sprained right ankle that cost him 39 games. Rodriguez is 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA since returning but allowed one run on five hits in six innings a week ago in a no-decision against TorontoRodriguez is 12-4 with a 3.53 ERA. He began the season 3-0 with a 5.29 ERA but is 9-4 with a 2.89 ERA in his last 16.In 11 career starts against the Yankees, Rodriguez is 4-3 with a 3.16 ERA. This year, he is 0-1 with a 4.09 ERA in two starts versus New York. The young switch-hitter is likely to get a one-year trial period in the Orioles outfield, but he has internal competition coming for his job."Cedric Mullins was the most exciting thing about the Orioles last season. There’s room for debate there, of course, but in a campaign so packed with disappointment, he stuck out as a rare ray of hope. His skill set (speed, athleticism, defense) had become a foreign concept in Baltimore, and his impressive debut (3-for-4, two doubles, two RBI, a walk) made for the most interesting baseball viewing of the year. But the shine of being the “fresh-faced rookie” wears off quickly. The Orioles are rebuilding http://www.diamondbacksfanproshop.com/authentic-zack-greinke-jersey , and there will be plenty of opportunities for young players to prove themselves, but Mullins plays one of the most competitive positions in the organization, so he will need to make 2019 count.Looking back at Mullins’s 45-game big league audition reveals that he was not quite as good statistically as it may have felt at the time. Across 191 plate appearances, the diminutive center fielder slashed .235/.312/.359 with nine doubles, four home runs, 17 walks, 37 strikeouts and two stolen bases on five attempts. That works out to a .298 wOBA, 86 wRC+, -0.3 fWAR and -0.2 bWAR. None of those numbers are really encouraging, but it’s also a small sample size and he was a rookie. It’s also nowhere near enough data to write Mullins off. He showed more than enough ability between his cup of coffee in Baltimore and his stops in Bowie and Norfolk last year to warrant an extended run as the Orioles center fielder of the present.The Orioles will be hoping for a marked improvement in his defense next year. FanGraphs gave him negative marks across the board for his arm (-0.9), range (-5.9) and, ultimately, UZR (-6.5). That all amounted to -6 defensive runs saved, which is quite poor. Again, these are small samples. Many outfielders have spoken in the past about adjusting from small minor league stadiums to massive major league stadiums with more lights and several tiers of seats. It takes time. Most scouts viewed Mullins as an above average prospect with the glove down on the farm. That hasn’t changed. If he takes strides in the field, that will provide an automatic boost to his overall value.One aspect of his game that may not change is how much Mullins struggles against left-handed pitching. Mullins is a switch hitter, giving him twice as much work to maintain two swings. Throughout his time in the minors he hit right-handers much better than he did lefties. That continued during his brief time with the Orioles.Mullins went 7-for-45 (all singles) with eight walks and 18 strikeouts against southpaws between August and September in Baltimore this year. Conversely, he put together a 33-for-125 line against righties with four home runs Randy Johnson Jersey , nine doubles, nine walks and 19 strikeouts. That is a 108-point difference in batting average, a 23-point difference in on-base percentage and a 274-point swing in slugging. At no level has Mullins ever done better against lefties than righties, and quite often it is by a hefty margin.Perhaps a new coaching staff or an updated organizational approach to hitting will save Mullins’s right-handed swing. Or maybe it’s time to ditch it altogether and focus on the left-handed approach. Whatever Mullins needs to do to be at the top of his game will have to be done relatively soon because the Orioles outfielder is about to get crowded. Mullins and D.J. Stewart arrived in 2018 and should both get a chance to start everyday in 2019. But they could soon be joined by Yusniel Diaz, Austin Hays, Ryan McKenna and maybe even Ryan Mountcastle. Out of that group, McKenna would seem to be the only real threat to unseat Mullins in center, but Diaz and Hays both have the ability to play the position as well.McKenna is in the middle of a monstrous Arizona Fall League season that, paired with his performance between Frederick and Bowie this summer, could send him rocketing up prospect lists.Diaz is universally thought of as the organization’s top prospect. Although he struggled after arriving from the Dodgers in the Manny Machado swap, most industry experts believe he has plenty of ability to be an everyday outfielder. Mountcastle may be one of the best pure hitters in all minor league baseball. Everything else about his game is a little iffy, but a big bat is sorely needed for a Baltimore team in lack of star power.And Hays had a nightmare 2018 after a dream 2017. Opinions are split on his future ability, but he already has a few weeks of major league experience under his belt. A healthy off-season could see him catapulted back into the outfield conversation in Baltimore earlier than some of his peers.All of Diaz, Hays, McKenna and Mountcastle finished 2018 with double-A Bowie. There is no real urgency for the Orioles to push any of them to the majors prior to September in 2019, but all of them are likely to be pounded on the big league door by the time Opening Day 2020 rolls around. Mullins is a solid player. He’s overachieved to this point. He may continue to do so and beat back internal competition. But he was never viewed as an elite prospect. He will not get an open-ended chance to show he’s the man for the job. The 2019 season may be his one and only chance to shine.