The Yankees have sole possession of first place in the AL East and look to continue beating up on tonight’s opponent.
Oakland Athletics at New York Yankees
Oakland has dropped seven of eight games versus the Yankees this season and have been outscored 20-8 in dropping the first two games of this four-game set. The Athletics came into the series with a major league-best 3.36 ERA, but that has been pushed up to 3.49 due to the last couple days. The team has lost four of its last six games, but has still won eight of 14 overall. It’s important to note that the club has a 16-27 record in the first game of a series, 21-22 in the second and a dominating 25-14 mark in the third contest. Oakland finished August with a 13-15 record, which was tied with Texas for the best record among AL West clubs during the month. Tonight marks the 25th time in the last 36 games that the Athletics have played a team that was in first place in their division or the wild card race at the time, posting a 10-14 record in the previous 24 contests. The club has a 12-10 record on the road when the total is 9 to 9.5 (+260) and 45-47 in this situation the last three campaigns (+1,440).
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The Detroit Lions have a lot of reasons to be optimistic heading into this season, but they need to be careful not to grow up too fast and avoid pressing the fast forward button. The Lions are coming off one of their best NFL drafts in recent memory thanks to the absence of former Team President Matt Millen. Following up on the selection of quarterback Matthew Stafford with the top overall pick a year ago, Detroit added All-American defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and running back Javid Best in the first round and may have very well added a couple more starters in the process. Time will obviously tell if any of those players go on to become All-Pros and lead the Lions back to the playoffs, but right now they simply need to focus on getting a little better game by game. Considering they have only won two games combined over the last two years, topping that number should be a goal that is certainly within reach to achieve this season.
We’ll take a brief look here at three of the favorites upcoming games.
