New York @ Oakland preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 21, 2012 ) NY Yankees 1, Oakland 2

The Oakland Athletics are perfectly comfortable playing one-run games and have no trouble relying on rookie pitchers. The surging Athletics have won four straight, each by one run, and have taken the first three from the New York Yankees behind rookie hurlers. Oakland has won seven of eight since the All-Star break to pull into a tie for the second wild card spot in the American League. The Yankees will be trying to avoid the four-game sweep on Sunday.

New York had scored at least three runs in a franchise-record 43 straight games before suffering a 3-2 loss to the Athletics on Friday. A 2-1 setback Saturday night made it two in a row with less than three tallies. What little offense Oakland has mustered lately has come heavily from Yoenis Cespedes, who has homered in two of the first three games of the series and is 18-for-31 (.581) since the All-Star break with four homers and nine RBIs. The three-game slide has trimmed the Yankees’ lead in the AL East to seven games over the Baltimore Orioles.

TV: 4:05 p.m. ET, YES (New York), CSCA (Oakland)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees LH CC Sabathia (10-3, 3.27 ERA) vs. Athletics RH Bartolo Colon (6-8, 3.88)

Sabathia came off the disabled list before his last start and looked sharp, surrendering four hits in six scoreless innings while striking out six to beat Toronto. The hefty left-hander cruised to a win at Oakland on May 26, allowing a pair of runs in seven innings. In his career, Sabathia has gone 8-8 with a 4.84 ERA against the Athletics - his worst ERA against any AL opponent.

Colon pitched for the Yankees last season and helped them to the playoffs with a 4.00 ERA in 29 games - 26 starts. The veteran right-hander has had his name bandied about in trade chatter lately but will need to improve on his last outing, when he was reached for four runs and eight hits in seven innings to suffer a loss to the Texas Rangers. Colon was beat up by his former team on May 29, allowing home runs to Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira in a loss.

WALK-OFFS

1. Yankees RF Nick Swisher (hip) will sit out Sunday’s finale. He suffered the injury running the bases in Friday’s contest.

2. Cano had his hitting streak snapped at 23 games with an 0-for-4 night on Saturday.

3. Athletics LHP Dallas Braden (shoulder) threw in the bullpen on Saturday and could begin throwing to hitters late next week.