The Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees are playing on the MLB afternoon schedule and the matchup from NY starts at 1:05 pm ET at Yankee Stadium and comes as the team is looking to rebound against the A's and it has a live stream on MLB.com as the Yanks are about to start a series with the Royals and they would like to get a win against the best team in baseball.
The Yankees have been dealing with a number of injuries and now they are trying to not get swept and that would put the team under .500 and they have their best pitcher on the mound. The team has Masahiro Tanaka up against Drew Pomeranz and he will need to get things going early, as the A's are the best team in the AL. The Yankees are 29-29 and Tanaka comes in at 8-1 on the season and without him the Yanks would be totally lost in the rotation and this comes ahead of Chase Whitley starting against the Kansas City Royals in the next game.
Tanaka comes over from Japan and has only one loss this season and he has been huge for the Yankees, who have CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda injured and that makes Tanaka the rock right now. The Yankees were leading the A's on Wednesday night before losing that matchup and the team comes into the game ranked ninth in batting average, but they are 18th in runs scored on the season and they are also 16th in on base and slugging percentage. The pitching has been up and down and they are ranked 22nd in ERA and are hoping for a better result heading into the summer.
Carlos Beltran is coming back from the DL and that will be big for the Yankees, as they have been struggling of late and so has Alfonso Soriano, who has looked lost recently. The Yankees are now in third place in the division and everyone is looking up at the Toronto Blue Jays, who have been off to a surprising start. The AL East is a close division, but the Blue Jays are starting to pull away and the Yankees now are behind the Orioles and they have the Boston Red Sox behind them, while the Rays are the worst team in the AL.
The Yankees now have to try and avoid the sweep from the best team in the American League, as Oakland is leading their division over the Angels and Mariners, who are 5.5 games and 6 games back. Those two teams are the current wild cards and if the season ended today, they would be in the postseason. The Mariners have continued to play better than most expected and they can be a dark horse, while the A's have just continued to mash, with names like Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss and Yoenis Cespedes all contributing. The weather in NY is a bit overcast for the game and the teams are hoping to get the game in to avoid another trip across the country.
Check here for the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees live coverage from MLB on Thursday.