Despite owning six fewer wins than last season at this point, the New York Yankees are concluding the first half of the regular season atop the American League East.
The Yankees hope to maintain their division lead Friday night when they host the Athletics in the opener of a three-game series.
New York is 46-34 and leads the Tampa Bay Rays by a half-game. Last season, the Yankees entered their 81st game at 52-28 and held a 1 1/2-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yankees have held sole possession of the lead this season since April 14. They held a seven-game edge following a 1-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels on May 28 to conclude a stretch of 16 wins in 20 games.
Since then, New York is 11-14 and has just four wins in the past 13 contests. The recent stretch included a six-game skid during which the Yankees scored a total of five runs and endured a 30-inning scoreless streak.
New York is 4-3 since the skid, having scored at least seven runs in three of those wins, including a 7-1 rout of the host Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday. The Yankees totaled 13 hits, the fourth time in seven games they produced a double-digit hit total, as they salvaged the finale of a three-game series.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., who hit a two-run homer on Wednesday, and is batting .329 (24-for-73) in 20 games since returning from an oblique injury. Trent Grisham and Jasson Dominguez finished with four hits apiece in the finale at Cincinnati, when every Yankee reached base at least once, though the team went 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position.
“I was really focused on the game,” Chisholm said. “We’ve got to lock in. We lost two games in a row, so I wanted to lock in.”
New York scored 29 runs when it took two of three from the A’s in West Sacramento, Calif., from May 9-11. The Athletics were one game over .500 following that series but have gone 12-30 since.
The A’s followed that series by losing 18 of 20. Starting with a 14-3 win over the Minnesota Twins on June 5, they have gone 10-10.
The Athletics head to New York after starting a nine-game trip by dropping two of three to the Detroit Tigers. On Thursday, the A’s matched their second-lowest hit total when they mustered three singles and had only two at-bats with runners in scoring position during an 8-0 loss.
“You can’t give away at-bats,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Overall, winning a game against this (Detroit) team, you’d like to win the series, but it does show some fight.
Jacob Wilson had one of the Athletics’ hits, and he is batting .345, the second-best average in the majors. New York’s Aaron Judge tops that list at .361. Wilson is 7-for-37 (.189) over his past 10 games.
Will Warren (4-4, 4.66 ERA) will start the series opener for New York. The rookie right-hander is 1-1 with a 3.47 ERA in four starts this month.
Warren took a no-decision on Sunday in a 4-2 win over the Orioles when he allowed both runs in the first inning along with six hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Warren’s only previous start against the Athletics was on May 9 in a 10-2 win when he permitted one run on four hits in 7 1/3 innings.
Mitch Spence (2-2, 3.84 ERA), whom the Yankees drafted in 2019, will face his former organization on Friday.
The second-year right-hander is 1-1 with a 2.75 ERA in four starts after posting a 4.38 ERA in 22 relief outings. Spence took a loss on Saturday when he allowed four runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings against the Cleveland Guardians.
Spence’s lone appearance against the Yankees came on May 11, when he allowed three runs in two innings.
–Field Level Media
