Oakland Arms hope to Quiet Yankee Bats

The powerhouse line-up of the New York Yankees will be tested against the phenomenal pitching staff of the young and talented Oakland Athletics. New York has had trouble manufacturing runs other than with the homerun as they have shown with their horrible .253 team batting average. It will take patience and clutch hitting to score against the solid rotation of Oakland.

The A’s have quietly put together the best pitching rotation in all of baseball. They currently lead the Major Leagues with a 2.88 team earned run average, and haven’t even pitched up to their potential. Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson all have sub 3.00 ERA’s and several of their middle-relief pitchers are in the same boat. This team is relentless in that they continuously send good pitcher after good pitcher to the mound.

Most MLB handicappers had this team finishing somewhere near the middle of the pack in the A.L. West only because of their lack of offense. If they could just be average at the plate, this team has the potential to duplicate what their neighbor Giants did last season. Not only does Oakland have just a .240 team batting average, but their 30 homeruns is second worst in baseball. There is only so much a pitching staff can do to help a team win. Not allowing runs in a critical part to winning ball games, but when your offense is ranked 24th in baseball in scoring runs, it can be a helpless feeling for a pitching staff.

New York’s pitchers don’t have to worry about getting run support. The Yankees are the best team in baseball in runs per game, and are hitting homeruns at an incredible rate. They are currently 16 homeruns ahead of the second best team in baseball (Texas), and 20 or more ahead of everyone else. The problem for the Yanks is that they haven’t had enough runners on base to make those bombs more meaningful. The Bombers have 3 of the top 10 and 5 of the top 20 homerun leaders in the Majors, and don’t seem to be playing their best ball yet. It’s scary to think of what this team could accomplish if they were hitting for average, but until they prove otherwise, they will be in a battle for the lead in the A.L. East all season long.

Outside of C.C. Sabathia there is not another go-to type pitcher on the Yankees staff. Phil Hughes was an 18 game winner in 2010, but has been sidelined with a “dead arm”. A.J. Burnett didn’t have high expectations from most baseball experts following a 10-15 season in which his earned run average was well over 5.00. However, he has rebounded nicely this season, and has become New York’s second best option. Rookie Ivan Nova and newly acquired Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon are eating up innings, but can’t be counted on to make quality starts time and time again.

This should be an interesting series that could seriously hurt or help both of these teams as they try to stay alive in their divisions. Tune in Wednesday as the A’s host the Yankees in what will be a classic battle of good pitching against good hitting.

 

Related posts:

1. Oakland vs. Seattle in American League West Showdown
2. Weaver hopes to cool Texas bats Thursday
3. Red Sox hope to continue Dominance of Yankees
4. Kershaw looks to stop Tigers Bats Monday Night
5. Rockies hope to ride Jimenez to a Big Second Half

Comments