New York Yankees to Face Three Former Yankees in A's Rotation This Weekend

After facing the best team in baseball to begin the week in the Detroit Tigers, the A's will now travel to take on the New York Yankees, a team that just happens to have the second-most wins in the American League at 46-34. That said, the Yankees are just 4-9 in their past 13. In that same span of time, the Athletics (33-50) are 7-6 after dropping two-of-three to both the Tigers and Cleveland Guardians.

The big story of this series will be the three arms that the A's are sending to the mound. On Friday, it will be former Rule 5 pick out of the Yankee system Mitch Spence (2-2, 3.84 ERA), who has been largely good in the A's rotation. In four starts he has posted a 2.75 ERA, but has typically maxed out at five innings of work.

He'll be opposed by Will Warren (4-4, 4.66). When the team matched up back in West Sacramento last month, Warren had arguably the best start of his career, going 7 1/3 innings, giving up just four hits, one earned run, walked one and struck out seven. This month he's 1-1 with a 3.47 ERA across four starts, but he's pitching into the sixth inning fairly consistently, too.

On Saturday the A's will have JP Sears (5-7, 5.44) on the mound for them. Last month back in Sacramento, manager Aaron Boone joked with reporters that they seem to face Sears every time the two teams match up. While this was meant in jest, it's also completely true. In ten starts since the beginning of May, Sears has a 7.23 ERA (6.54 FIP).

In his last eight starts, Sears has allowed three runs or fewer just three times, so things haven't been going terribly well for him of late. Sears came to the A's as part of the Frankie Montas deal, though he'd made his debut with the Yankees prior, even pitching against the A's in 2022. He earned the win against the A's in that one appearance, while in six starts against the Yankees he's 0-4 with a 5.74 ERA.

The Yankees will be tossing out Clarke Schmidt (4-3, 2.84) on Saturday to face-off against Sears, and in four starts this month he has a 1.03 ERA and has racked up at least six innings three times. In his last three outings, he has accumulated 20 2/3 innings of work without allowing an earned run, so he's on quite the role. That said, he holds a 5.14 ERA against the A's in his career, and their offense is more stout than that of the Royals, Angels, or Orioles.

Sunday's finale will be the one that people tune in for, as Luis Severino makes his return to Yankee Stadium for the first time as an opposing pitcher. He was not available to pitch when the New York Mets visited last season. The Yankees have already faced Severino this season, hanging eight runs on him in four innings of work.

But that was Severino at home, where he holds a 6.79 ERA this year. On the road he's been much better, holding a 2.27. That's part of the reason why teams are keeping an eye on him as the Trade Deadline nears. As of right now, the Yankees have not announced their starter for Sunday, though Roster Resource seems to believe it'll be Carlos Rodón.

While the Yankees have the second-best offense in baseball this season according to wRC+ with a 120 (100 is league average), during this stretch since June 13, New York's offense has been among the worst in the game at 86, ranking them No. 24.

Meanwhile, the A's offense has been closer to league average at a 98, and they have a number of young left-handers that will be looking to take advantage of the short porch in right in Lawrence Butler, Nick Kurtz, and Tyler Soderstrom.

This series will likely favor the Yankees, because the A's pitching staff as a whole has been among the worst in baseball this season, despite turning things around more recently and being a roughly league average group. That may be enough to get the Yankee bats back on track. Ideally the A's could win two of three in this series, but the Yankees will be tossing out some pretty solid arms this weekend, which could make that tough.