Yanks Go Yard Radio Show Rewind: A’s-Yankees Preview (7/7-7/9)

By Ricky Keeler | Jul 7, 2015

On last night’s episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, brought to you by KNODA.com, I started off the show by talking about the New York Yankees (44-38) taking two out of three from the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend. Both of their wins came in dramatic walk-off fashion. On Friday night, Brian McCann hit a walk-off three home run in the bottom of the 12^th and Ramon Flores had a rare walk-off sacrifice bunt to score Jose Pirela in Saturday’s win.

Last night, first baseman Mark Teixeira and setup man/closer Dellin Betances were named to the American League All-Star team. Brett Gardner still has a chance to make it via the Final Vote, which fans have until Friday at 4 PM ET to cast their vote. Earlier in the day, it was reported that Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Miller could both make their returns to the big league club on Wednesday.

With six games left until the All-Star Break, the Yankees begin a three game series tonight against the Oakland Athletics (38-47), who beat New York in three out of four games back on the West Coast in May.

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The A’s also have two players heading to Cincinnati for next Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Those two players are starter Sonny Gray and catcher Stephen Vogt. Even though Bob Melvin’s club got off to a slow start, they are playing better as of late, going 18-14 in their last 32 games.

One of the main reasons for that success is the starting pitching. Led by Gray and Kazmir, who will start the first two games in this week’s series, the A’s have the best starters’ ERA (3.00) in the American League. However, their bullpen has been the exact opposite. The team’s relievers’ ERA of 4.35 is the second worst in the AL, ahead of only their division rivals, the Texas Rangers.

On offense, one of the players that have emerged for the A’s is third baseman Brett Lawrie. Lawrie, who was acquired in the Josh Donaldson trade this winter, hit .326 during the month of June with three home runs and 16 RBI’s. He has started off July by being 6-for-15 at the plate.

To talk more about the A’s, I spoke with Andrew Dambrauskas from Swingin A’s to get his take on Oakland’s solid play of late, their status as sellers on the trade market, and what he makes of Josh Reddick’s recent comments about his lack of playing time. Here are some of the other topics we discussed:

Lawrie starting to feel more comfortable at the plate
Reaction to Gray and Vogt getting selected to the All-Star Game
Pitching Matchup Breakdown
Sonny Gray coming back after being out since June 25 due to sickness
Nathan Eovaldi (tonight’s Yankees’ starter) gave up 11 singles in his first start agaianst Oakland
Will Wednesday be the last start Scott Kazmir makes as a member of the A’s?
CC Sabathia (Wednesday’s Yankees starter) making his first start since June 29
What has been behind Jesse Chavez’s recent struggles (Thursday’s A’s starter)
Masahiro Tanaka (Thursday’s Yankees’ starter) had ten groundball outs his last start for the first time since June 15
A’s Hitters To Watch: Brett Lawrie and Marcus Semien
Yankees Hitters To Watch: Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez
Examining the Trade Values of Kazmir, Ben Zobrist, and Tyler Clippard

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