A’s Look To Sweep Yankees (Preview)

After being last years dark horse team, storming back in the second half to make a playoff run, the Oakland Athletics have gone a long way this season to establish themselves among the best teams in the MLB.  They currently sit atop the AL West and have the second best win-loss record in the American League.   They now find themselves on the cusp of sweeping the almighty New York Yankees.

The Yankees are pretty much in the middle of a ten game road trip that has them spending a lot of time in the west coast.  They have gone 3-3 since heading off on this trip and have dropped two in a row to the A’s in the this three game series and hope to avoid the sweep today.

Jarrod Parker, right hander, will be the starting pitcher for Oakland.  His overall ERA is a 4.68 and is 5-6, however, he has been hot as of late.  Is his last six starts he has a 2.43 ERA.  His last outing was a a game against the Chicago White Sox where he went a full seven frames and allowed just two earned runs.

The Yankees will be starting a right hander as well in Hiroki Kuroda.  Kuroda has a 2.84 ERA on the season but has been in a bit of a rut lately.  He has three losses and a no-decision in his last four games.  His last outing was a loss to the Seattle Mariners where he surrendered four runs in the fourth inning alone..

Kuroda will be paying particular attention to A’s outfielder Seth Smith who has hit with a .375 with a .464 on-base percentage in 28 bats against  Kuroda throughout his career.  Despite Smith’s solid hitting against Kuroda, he has never landed a homer against the right hander, but no else on the A’s roster has either.  A stat that Kuroda would like to keep intact.

The odds in this game are close in all the sports books are close.  According to Bovada the A’s have the slight advantage with a -106 money line to the Yanks -104.  The Yankees will be meeting the A’s today at 3:35 p.m. ET.