Oakland A's Wrap Up Road Trip At New York Yankees

The Oakland A's wrap up a ten-game road trip with a visit to the Bronx, where they'll square off with the New York Yankees for a four game set. The A's will have their hands full with the Yankees who currently stand tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East.

The A's are coming off a huge series victory at Texas and will be looking for at least a split at Yankee Stadium. The A's have to be hoping their strong pitching can carry the day and their offense can provide just enough of a spark to potentially take three of four. Considering the Rangers are playing three games at the perpetually struggling Kansas City Royals, the A's will have to handle their business if they want to stick around the ever shrinking playoff race.

The series will see the A's send Trevor Cahill out to face Dustin Moseley tonight, Vin Mazzaro against Phil Hughes tomorrow, Brett Anderson versus A.J. Burnett on Wednesday, and Dallas Braden against C.C. Sabathia on Thursday. For the A's young pitching staff, this is an excellent challenge. It's certainly not that the Yankees pitches are any better than the A's. In reality, the A's starting pitching has been better than the Yankees starting pitching top to bottom. The worst A's starter is Vin Mazzaro, who rolls out a 3.61 era. Not too shabby if you ask me.

The challenge comes in the form of the potent Yankee offense and the history of the franchise. Even in a mere regular season series, the pinstripes can be intimidating. Cahill and Braden have both faced the Yankees in 2010, with Cahill giving up six runs in his only start, and Braden giving up two runs in six innings. Anderson and Mazzaro have yet to face the Yankees in 2010. Whatever the case, it will be a nice challenge for the A's, who have played fairly well as of late.