The New York Yankees have started to show kinks in their armor, particularly in the starting rotation, but they still sit at 14-7 at home and are still the team to beat in the AL East. The Oakland Athletics, on the other side, come to town for a three-game series having struggled so far on the road. They’re just 6-15 in 21 games away from O.co.
This series will be contested from Friday, May 26, 2017 through Sunday, May 28, 2017 at Yankee Stadium in New York. Saturday's clash is being shown live out-of-market on MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
Kendall Graveman and C.C. Sabathia is the initial pitching matchup for this series in the Friday night opener.
Graveman has now pitched in 65 games in the majors and has a career ERA of 4.05. His ERA in eight starts this year is 4.05 and his WHIP is 1.277. He’s been only slightly better than in years past, but is relatively in line with who he has shown himself to be in his Major-League career.
The righty is a starter that’ll typically keep you in the game, but he’s not someone you can count on to dominate the opposition. He’s not a high strikeout pitcher. He makes the batter put the ball in play and that leads to a career 9.5 hits per nine innings pitched.
Sabathia has settled into his role as a back-of-the-rotation starter. He’s 4-2 with a 4.62 ERA and 1.401 WHIP. All his ratios are noticeably off his career norms, but in line with what he’s produced over his last four seasons.
The 36-year old southpaw looked like he may have figured out how to dominate again despite diminished stuff with three very strong early starts, but since that point, he’s made six starts, giving up fewer than four runs twice. The good news: both of those times came in his last two starts.
Over his last two starts, Sabathia is 2-0 with two runs—one earned—in 11.2 innings, nine hits, 10 strike outs and one home run.
The series continues Saturday with Michael Pineda looking to continue a good season and Sean Manaea tasked with trying to outpitch him.
Manaea this year is basically who Pineda has been his entire career: a pitcher with good stuff, but no consistency who could dominate a lineup one day and go three innings before getting knocked out of the game the next. Manaea had a sub-4 ERA in his debut last year, but he’s 2-3 with a 5.24 ERA right now.
As for Pineda, he leads the Yankees in ERA and innings pitched. He’s 5-2 with a 3.35 ERA and 1.043 WHIP in 53.2 innings. He’s thrown a quality start in each of his four outings in May and has allowed three earned or fewer in all but his first start of the year. Since that start, the Yankees are 7-1 in games he’s pitched and he’s pitched to a 2.88 ERA. In five starts against Oakland, Pineda is 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 30 innings.
So, while Gravemen edges out Sabathia in the opening matchup, Pineda gives the Yankees the edge in the middle game which could set up Sunday as a rubber match. If that’s the case, it’ll be up to Andrew Triggs and Jordan Montgomery to clinch the series for their respective teams.
Montgomery won the rotation spot out of the Spring. The 24-year old rookie southpaw is 2-3 with a 4.30 ERA and has been serviceable. Triggs has been even better.
Never regarded as much of a prospect, Triggs got a chance to start last year by default and showed well. He started off this year with a flourish, putting up three straight scoreless outings. He’s had just two bad starts in his nine games, but one did come his last time out: allowing six runs to the Red Sox.
Overall, Triggs is still 5-3 and the A’s are 6-3 in his starts.
Who's Hot?
Health is an issue lately for Yonder Alonso, but his May has been great. He’s hit nine home runs and has driven in 17 with a .406 OBP and .808 slugging. Jed Lowrie is swinging the bat well of late, too, getting on base at a .356 clip in his last 20 games played.
The Oakland bullpen hasn’t lived up to expectations overall. They’re pitching to a 4.73 ERA, ranking fifth worst in the AL, but Frankie Montas and Liam Hendriks are throwing the ball well out of the pen right now. In May, Montas has 14 strikeouts in nine innings of work. Hendricks has given up just two runs this month in 11.1 innings, allowing seven hits, one walke and striking out 14. Ryan Dull has four holds in seven games.
Chad Green and Chasen Shreve have been lights out for the Yankees, giving the team added depth in the pen with Aroldis Chapman banged up.
Green has thrown 9.1 innings in his last four games and has allowed just five base runners while striking out 11. Shreve has given up just one run in 12 innings. He has walked seven in that span, but has kept the opposition off the scoreboard.
At the plate for the Yankees, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Starlin Castro have been great all year while Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius has been strong since getting back from injury. Brett Gardner, however, has suddenly turned into a huge power threat. He’s already got nine home runs and 19 RBIs. His career high for homers is 17 and he hit just 7 last year.
All of Gardner’s homers have come in the team’s last 21 games.
Who's Not?
The A’s will face a pair of southpaws in this series. They’re hitting .245 against lefties with a .682 OPS as a team. That ranks them in the lower third of teams against southpaws.
Ryon Healy hits lefties very well. He’s batting .386 against them with three homers and a 1.095 OPS. Yonder Alonso is hitting well against everyone this year. Surprisingly, career platoon outfielder Matt Joyce is hitting .316 against lefties, albeit in limited action. Outside of that, however, it’s been largely futility.
Overall, Khris Davis is struggling for the A’s. He’s hitting .167, striking out 25 times in 78 at bats in May. Adam Rosales is hitting .212 on the month with a .557 OPS, only marginally better than Davis.
For the Yankees, the first base position continues not to produce. Greg Bird is out and Chris Carter is striking out as usual. Another ice-cold player is Chase Headley. He was one of the players carrying the team in April, but in May he’s hitting .159 and getting on base at a .183 clip. He’s yet to hit a homer since the calendar flipped and has just 11 hits and five runs scored.
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