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The New York Yankees have won six in a row heading into a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night at Angel Stadium. Gary Sanchez kept the winning streak alive with a three-run, walk-off homer on Thursday afternoon in a 4-3 win over the visiting Minnesota Twins.
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The Yankees, who are eight games into an 18-day stretch without a day off, lead the majors with 39 home runs and the Angels are second with 36.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who went to high school about five miles from Angel Stadium, said his team's home run potential keeps them in every game.
"If we can get traffic on the bases, we're always one swing away with our guys," Boone said after Thursday's win.
Angels center fielder Mike Trout leads the majors with 10 home runs and Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius leads with 29 RBIs. Gregorius also leads the American League with a .354 batting average and is second with nine home runs.
New York right fielder Aaron Judge has reached base in 30 straight games.
Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin will miss the series as he begins serving a four-game suspension for charging the mound against the Boston Red Sox on April 18. His suspension was reduced from five games to four on Thursday.
Austin is hitting .290 with five home runs and 16 RBIs in 17 games.
"I don't want to get into whether I agree with it or not, but I'm happy they knocked one game down," Austin said. "I obviously don't want to be suspended at any point in time, but it's happened, we've got to deal with it and move forward."
Los Angeles won 13 of its first 16 games this season before going 1-5 on its most recent homestand. The Angels bounced back to take two of three against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros earlier this week.
"You win two of three against a division rival, that's obviously a good morale boost," Angels pitcher Nick Tropeano said.
The Angels have won five of their past seven against the Yankees as well.
The Yankees will turn to 24-year-old right-hander Luis Severino (4-1, 2.32 ERA) in the series opener. He has combined to allow one earned run in 13 innings in his past two starts, giving him the most starts in the past two seasons without allowing more than one run (19).
Severino has faced the Angels once in his previous three years in the majors. He allowed six runs (five earned) and eight hits in six innings in a 10-5 loss at Yankee Stadium last June 22.
Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney (0-1, 9.64 ERA) is looking for his first quality start of the season.
He began the season on the disabled list because of inflammation in his pitching elbow.
Heaney made his first start on April 13 at the Kansas City Royals and allowed four runs (three earned) in five innings of the 5-4 win. He then gave up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings of an 8-1 loss to the visiting San Francisco Giants on Friday.
Heaney posted his first major league win in his only career start against the Yankees.
He allowed one run and two hits in seven innings against the visiting Yankees on June 30, 2015, in a 2-1 Angels win.
