As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things well be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today: 1. Pitchers Duel in Atlanta: Just two weeks after Red Sox right-hander faced off against Cubs lefty in an early-season pitchers duel that pitted the then-best righty and lefty in baseball by ERA against each other in Boston, Crawford will again take the mound opposite one of the other best starting pitchers in the league to this point in the young 2024 season: Braves right-hander . Crawford sports an excellent 1.56 ERA with a 2.52 FIP and a 24.2% strikeout rate through seven starts this season. Those figures are very similar to those posted by Lopez in five starts this season: a 1.50 ERA, 2.94 FIP and 27% strikeout rate. Those hot starts have left Crawford as the fifth-best starter in baseball by ERA with at least 30 innings of work this season, while Lopez ranks fourth. The strong results early in the season are all the more impre sive given the fact that neither hurler was starting games this time last year; Lopez had pitched almost exclusively in relief over the past two seasons before being stretched out by Atlanta this winter, while Crawford was bumped to the bullpen in early April of last year and did not return to the Boston rotation until June. The two righties are set to face off this at 7:20pm local time this evening in Atlanta. 2. Series Preview: Astros @ Yankees A three-game set featuring one of the more heated inter-division rivalries in recent years is set to kick Jose Mesa Jersey off at 7:05pm local time in the Bronx this evening as the Yankees host the Astros. The look of the rivalry is very different six weeks into the regular season than it was in 2023, however. Last season saw the Astros capture their sixth-consecutive full-season AL West crown and make their seventh-consecutive trip to the ALCS as the Yankees mi sed the postseason for the first time since 2016, but this year the Astros have struggled badly in the early going while the Yankees have gotten off to a strong start on the back of offseason addition . Thats left the Astros (12-22) with a nearly mirror opposite record to the surging Yankees (23-13) headed into this weeks series. Its an important series for both clubs, with Houston desperate to make up ground in the AL West and avoid falling even further out of the playoff picture while the Yankees sit just one game back of the AL East-leading Orioles. Tonights game will see the Astros send future Hall of Famer (2.08 ERA in 2024) to the mound opposite Yankees righty (3.19 ERA). Gil will be followed by left-hander (3.68 ERA) on the mound for New York tomorrow, while the Astros figure to counter with youngster (8.27 ERA). Right-handers (2.09 ERA) and (3.41 ERA) will finish off the series for the Astros and Yankees respectively on Thursday. 3. Recent veterans whove opted out: First baseman , left-hander and right-hander opted out of their respective minor league deals , and last week. Ford, in particular, has had a ma sive start to the season in Triple-A, hitting .297/.381/.538 with six homers in 105 plate appearances. That followed a huge spring training performance in which he hit .455/.486/.727 in 35 trips to the plate. Shreve posted a 2.61 ERA in 10 1/3 Triple-A frames and posted a 4.63 ERA in 44 1/3 big league innings last year. Hes worked to a career 3.97 ERA in 356 MLB frames. Givens was tagged for 10 runs in 11 1/3 innings with the Marlins top affiliate, but half of those came in his first appearance of the season after signing late in spring training. Knee and shoulder injuries limited him to four innings last year, but he has a lengthy track record as a succe sful late-inning arm. Any of the three could help out a big league club and should come off the board again before long. Kirk Mccarty Jersey