MLB Betting Preview: Yankees Send Sabathia to Mound in Oakland
Death, taxes and the Yankees beating the A's. New York goes for its 15 win over Oakland in 18 tries tonight when C.C. Sabathia takes the mound against Trevor Cahill.
The last time these two teams met on the baseball diamond in Oakland, the Yankees emerged victorious in two out of three. It was the one Athletics win that got most of the coverage in the media, however.
New York and Oakland got their second meeting of the year rolling on Monday with the Yankees peeling off a 3-1 win as 145 favorites. It was New York's fifth road win in the last six tries, with the Yanks also 5-1 in their last six at the old Oakland Coliseum.
Beating the A's is nothing new for the Yankees who have won 14 of the last 17 meetings. One of those three losses was April 22 in the series getaway game. Oakland won 4-2 as a 165 underdog, thanks in part to Dallas Braden's pitching that day. Braden and Alex Rodriguez exchanged words during the game when A-Rod cut across the infield and the pitcher's mound after a fly out.
Hoping to rekindle that little dust-up – Others might call it beating a dead horse – there were t-shirts for sale before Monday's game with "Get off my mound" printed on them. Judging by the way Javier Vazquez pitched for New York in Monday's win (seven innings, three hits, one run), perhaps he's the one Oakland should keep off its mound.
MLB odds for the middle game of the set started with the Yankees 150-155 favorites. The total opened at 7½ with a little extra juice on the 'under.'
C.C. Sabathia (11-7, 3.33) started and lost that April 22 game, serving up a three-run homer to Kurt Suzuki in the bottom of the first that proved the game-winner. The two runners to score in front of Suzuki both reached via a free pass from the New York southpaw who walked six in his eight innings of work. A walk to Suzuki leading off the fourth would also turn into a run for the A's.
Both starts Sabathia made in 2009 against the A's turned into wins on his and the Yankees' ledgers. He faced Oakland three times in '08 while with Cleveland, tossing a five-hit shutout in won and getting hammered for 13 earned runs in 8 2/3 combined innings the other two starts.
Trevor Cahill (10-3, 2.74) was called up to join Oakland's rotation about a week after the two teams met in April and has been the club's most consistent starter the past two months. Rocked in Toronto in his season debut on April 30, Cahill's ERA since is a sparkling 2.22. The A's are 5-0 in his most recent trips to the hill, though three of those games have been against the struggling Cubs, Pirates and Orioles. New York's lineup will be a much different animal for the young right-hander to face.
The flip side to that is the Yankees have never seen Cahill who is 4-0 with a 1.35 ERA in five starts at home. Curtis Granderson, while with Detroit, saw the right-hander for six plate appearances in 2009, walking twice and rapping a double for his only hit. He'll be the player in Yankees road gray on Tuesday with any experience versus Cahill.
Yankees catcher Jorge Posada is listed as day-to-day with a bad digit on his glove hand. He did not play in the series opener on Monday, with his replacement Francisco Cervelli contributing to the New York offense with an RBI single.
Mostly clear skies are forecast for this one, with the game starting in the low-70s and dropping into the mid-to-upper 50s overnight. A WSW breeze in the 8-12 mph range is expected (out to left-center).
Mike Winters will be working his 17th game behind the plate on Tuesday. It's his first look at either team in 2010, and Winters brings a 10-6 lean to the 'under' into the contest.
The series concludes Wednesday evening with Gio Gonzalez (9-8, 3.50) on the hill for Oakland against New York's A.J. Burnett (8-9, 4.90). The two clubs meet once more on the 2010 regular season slate when the A's travel to New York for four in late-August, early-September.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Death, taxes and the Yankees beating the A's. New York goes for its 15 win over Oakland in 18 tries tonight when C.C. Sabathia takes the mound against Trevor Cahill.
The last time these two teams met on the baseball diamond in Oakland, the Yankees emerged victorious in two out of three. It was the one Athletics win that got most of the coverage in the media, however.
New York and Oakland got their second meeting of the year rolling on Monday with the Yankees peeling off a 3-1 win as 145 favorites. It was New York's fifth road win in the last six tries, with the Yanks also 5-1 in their last six at the old Oakland Coliseum.
Beating the A's is nothing new for the Yankees who have won 14 of the last 17 meetings. One of those three losses was April 22 in the series getaway game. Oakland won 4-2 as a 165 underdog, thanks in part to Dallas Braden's pitching that day. Braden and Alex Rodriguez exchanged words during the game when A-Rod cut across the infield and the pitcher's mound after a fly out.
Hoping to rekindle that little dust-up – Others might call it beating a dead horse – there were t-shirts for sale before Monday's game with "Get off my mound" printed on them. Judging by the way Javier Vazquez pitched for New York in Monday's win (seven innings, three hits, one run), perhaps he's the one Oakland should keep off its mound.
MLB odds for the middle game of the set started with the Yankees 150-155 favorites. The total opened at 7½ with a little extra juice on the 'under.'
C.C. Sabathia (11-7, 3.33) started and lost that April 22 game, serving up a three-run homer to Kurt Suzuki in the bottom of the first that proved the game-winner. The two runners to score in front of Suzuki both reached via a free pass from the New York southpaw who walked six in his eight innings of work. A walk to Suzuki leading off the fourth would also turn into a run for the A's.
Both starts Sabathia made in 2009 against the A's turned into wins on his and the Yankees' ledgers. He faced Oakland three times in '08 while with Cleveland, tossing a five-hit shutout in won and getting hammered for 13 earned runs in 8 2/3 combined innings the other two starts.
Trevor Cahill (10-3, 2.74) was called up to join Oakland's rotation about a week after the two teams met in April and has been the club's most consistent starter the past two months. Rocked in Toronto in his season debut on April 30, Cahill's ERA since is a sparkling 2.22. The A's are 5-0 in his most recent trips to the hill, though three of those games have been against the struggling Cubs, Pirates and Orioles. New York's lineup will be a much different animal for the young right-hander to face.
The flip side to that is the Yankees have never seen Cahill who is 4-0 with a 1.35 ERA in five starts at home. Curtis Granderson, while with Detroit, saw the right-hander for six plate appearances in 2009, walking twice and rapping a double for his only hit. He'll be the player in Yankees road gray on Tuesday with any experience versus Cahill.
Yankees catcher Jorge Posada is listed as day-to-day with a bad digit on his glove hand. He did not play in the series opener on Monday, with his replacement Francisco Cervelli contributing to the New York offense with an RBI single.
Mostly clear skies are forecast for this one, with the game starting in the low-70s and dropping into the mid-to-upper 50s overnight. A WSW breeze in the 8-12 mph range is expected (out to left-center).
Mike Winters will be working his 17th game behind the plate on Tuesday. It's his first look at either team in 2010, and Winters brings a 10-6 lean to the 'under' into the contest.
The series concludes Wednesday evening with Gio Gonzalez (9-8, 3.50) on the hill for Oakland against New York's A.J. Burnett (8-9, 4.90). The two clubs meet once more on the 2010 regular season slate when the A's travel to New York for four in late-August, early-September.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
