Series Preview: Yankees @ Athletics

Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees continue their west coast trip as they go to Oakland for three games against the pesky A’s. After sweeping the Mariners, the Yankees hope to continue their winning streak, as they try to inch closer to the first place Toronto Blue Jays.

                                        Probable Pitching Match-ups

    Yankees                                             @                                         Athletics

David Phelps             Friday, June 13th:  10:05 pm EST            Sonny Gray

Hiroki Kuroda         Saturday, June 14th: 10:05 pm EST          Scott Kazmir

  Vidal Nuno              Sunday, June 15th: 4:05 pm EST             Jesse Chavez

Who’s Hot?: Yoenis Cespedes and Stephen Vogt have been seeing the ball well recently. Cespedes over his last six games, is hitting over .330 with a few doubles and three RBI, while Voght is right around .300 with a homer and four ribbies. For the Bronx Bombers, Derek Jeter has been red hot over the past week. The captain is nine for his last twenty-four, which translated to a .375 average for the future Hall of Famer.

Who’s Not?: During the same stretch, Brandon Moss and Josh Donaldson have been badly scuffling. Moss is hitting just .125, with one round-tripper and four RBI. Donaldson has managed to do worse. He is hitting under .050 with a solo home run being the only production to his credit.

                                                       *What To Watch For*

David Phelps starts against the A’s tonight. There a few big bats with history against Phelps such as Yoenis Cesepedes, Brandon Moss, and Josh Donaldson. However, when looking at the big picture, seven Oakland players have combined to go 3-for-16 (.188)

Hiroki Kuroda will make the second start of the series, but A’s hitters are doing just as poorly against the 39-year-old. Moss, Donaldson, and John Jaso have seen their share of Kuroda but the trio has only gone 9-for-40, for a .225 average. The rest of the team (nine players) have awful numbers against the Japanese import as well. They’ve combined for just a .170 average (8-for-47) with just one home run and five runs batted in.

Vidal Nuno gets the nod for the final game. Nuno has faced the Athletics once in his career, on June 4th of this year. In that outing, he went 4 2/3 innings while surrendering two runs on six hits. The Yankees really want to at least take two of three in Oakland and try to cut even more into the Blue Jays’ division lead before welcoming them to the Bronx on Tuesday.