The New York Yankees, with Gerrit Cole starting on the mound, will face the Baltimore Orioles with Corbin Burnes on the mound on Thursday, September 26, 2024 (09/26/24) at Yankee Stadium in New York City.

As the American League playoff race heats up, here’s how to watch the game.

How to watch: Fans can watch the game for FREE via a trial of DirecTV Stream or fuboTV for local channels.

What: Yankees game

Who: New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles

When: September 26, 2024

Time: 7:00 p.m. ET

Where: Yankee Stadium

TV: YES Network (New York area), MASN (Baltimore area)

Station finder: Verizon Fios, Comcast Xfinity,Spectrum/Charter,Optimum/Altice,Cox,DIRECTV,Court,Hulu, fuboTV, loop.

Live stream: DirecTV stream (free trial version), fuboTV (free trial)

NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes has a flexor strain in his pitching elbow and was placed on the 15-day injured list Wednesday, affecting New York’s rotation ahead of the playoffs.

Cortes and the Yankees still hold out hope that he could return at some point in the postseason, but that didn’t seem likely.

“I don’t know if it’s optimistic. I mean, we’re not ruling it out yet,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Cortes was scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday night against Baltimore and replaced by Marcus Stroman, with the Yankees one win away from winning the AL East title and a first-round playoff bye.

Stroman was moved to the bullpen for the final two weeks of the regular season.

“He’s ready to go. I think I’m excited to get the ball,” Boone said. “He got through it all great. He was ready for any role that came his way. He had a really good year for us and is a big reason why we are in this position. Hopefully he can go out there tonight and prepare us.”

Cortes (9-10, 3.77 ERA) had an MRI on Monday and was placed on the IL retroactive to Sunday.

He will not throw for at least seven to ten days and will seek additional opinions from two reputable experts by submitting the MRI results to Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Dr. Keith Meister sends.

“I’ve been suffering from tenderness for a few weeks. But it wasn’t until Sunday that I threw my bullpen in Oakland, where it didn’t feel right,” Cortes said. “The tape looks good. Obviously there are chronic things where if you do an MRI on any pitcher, things show up all year long. But (the) UCL is not torn or damaged. So that’s good news.

“I don’t know what the timeline is,” he added. “I don’t know if it’s 10 days or 40 days, but I know that people get better with rest, and hopefully with the treatments I’m getting it will feel better.”

Cortes was a candidate to become New York’s third starter in the postseason behind Gerrit Cole (7-5, 3.67) and Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.98).

“I definitely feel bad for him right now,” Boone said. “I just have to pick up the slack and support him right away and then see what we have in the next few days, just see exactly how he reacts and things like that.”

Cortes was 4-0 with a 1.58 ERA in his last seven appearances (six starts), recording 38 strikeouts and 10 walks in 40 innings.

“That’s one of the things that stinks about how well he’s throwing the baseball right now,” Boone said.

The Yankees had already secured at least one wild card berth and needed a win in their last five games to secure the division title. If successful, they would open a best-of-five division series at home on October 5th.

Stroman, rookie Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt are the remaining candidates to start a potential Game 3. Since there are off days between Games 1 and 2 and between Games 2 and 3, the Yankees would likely only need three starters in this round.

“The mentality and the way I’m going to go about it is definitely that I’m trying to get back,” Cortes said. “Depending on how far we get and how well I can cope with the rehab. My main focus is obviously to come back and help this team.”

New York recalled right-hander Cody Poteet from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and he was available in the bullpen Wednesday night.