The New York Yankees will complete another chapter in their history when they play their final game at the Oakland Coliseum on Sunday afternoon in an attempt to sweep a three-game series from the Athletics.
The Yankees (91-64) begin the day needing any combination of three wins and/or Baltimore Orioles losses over the final seven games of the regular season to claim the American League East title.
It won’t happen Sunday, but the Yankees will participate in a celebration of sorts when they play their 283rd regular-season game in the stadium the A’s moved to in 1968 when they relocated from Kansas City.
The A’s will play their home games in Sacramento for the next three seasons as they await the construction of a new ballpark in Las Vegas.
New York’s 10-0 win Saturday was its 136th at the multi-purpose site, the eighth-most among all A’s opponents and second-most to the Orioles (143) among teams that have never been in the AL West.
The Yankees saved their best for their postseason appearances in Oakland, going 5-1 en route to beating the A’s in the 1981 AL Championship Series and the 2000 and 2001 AL Division Series.
A native of the Northern California town of Linden, Aaron Judge hit a 425-foot home run in Saturday’s win.
While the move to Sacramento will mean playing closer to his old home and high school, Judge acknowledged he didn’t quite know how to feel about his final appearances at the Coliseum.
“It’s exciting, sad, all mixed together,” he said. “There are a lot of great memories here. A lot of legends played here. So (it’s) kind of bittersweet, but they got something exciting, I think, coming up in the future for them.”
Seeking to avoid a sweep and give his organization one last small measure of revenge against its playoff antagonist will be A’s right-hander Joey Estes (7-8, 4.78 ERA), who has never faced the Yankees in his two-year big-league career.
The 22-year-old was tagged for six runs in one-plus innings in a 9-2 road loss to the Chicago Cubs in his most recent start Monday. He has been great at home this season, going 4-2 with a 2.74 ERA in 10 starts.
The A’s (67-88) have announced that former AL Most Valuable Player Miguel Tejada and World Series champions Terry Steinbach and Carney Lansford will be among the celebrities on hand for the Yankees’ final visit.
Noting that he thought Saturday’s pitcher, JP Sears, got caught up in the emotions of the atmosphere, A’s manager Mark Kotsay hopes his young team gains from the experience of the final homestand. The A’s will turn out the lights on their stay at the Coliseum after a three-game series against the Texas Rangers from Tuesday through Thursday.
“There are always different challenges,” Kotsay said. “The beauty of this is that we’ll take from these experiences and learn and continue to grow. This was different for sure, and we’re not through it yet.”
The Yankees have scheduled right-hander Luis Gil (14-6, 3.14 ERA) for the series finale. The 26-year-old, who has never pitched at the Coliseum or against the A’s, has been on top of his game in three September starts, allowing just two runs and 10 hits over 16 innings while striking out 17.
-Field Level Media
