In Saturday afternoon MLB action, the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics will continue their four-game series from RingCentral Coliseum. The Yankees (76-52) are riding a 13-game winning streak and trail Tampa Bay by four full games for the AL Central Division lead. Last night, All-Star SP Gerrit Cole (13-6) fanned nine batters across six shutout frames during an 8-2 road victory. OF Aaron Judge homered and drove in four runs to power the offense.
Twenty-six year old southpaw Nestor Cortes Jr. (2-1 2.56 ERA) will make his eighth start of the season for the Yankees. Last time out, Cortes Jr. allowed two runs in seven innings during a 10-2 home victory versus New York.
The Oakland Athletics are looking to snap a six-game losing skid and trail Boston by 3.5 games in the race for the AL Wild Card race. On Friday, Oakland SP Sean Manaea (8-9) gave up five runs in four plus innings and took the loss. OF Starling Marte had a pair of hits and scored a run in a losing effort for the Athletics, who dropped to 70-59 on the year.
The Athletics will turn to twenty-eight year old righty Frankie Montas (9-9 3.84 ERA) on Saturday. Through 143 innings, Montas has struck out 161 batters and owns a respectable 1.24 WHIP.
