Who do the Yankees want to face in the playoffs?

After the 160th game of the regular season, we now know the four five American League teams headed for the playoffs. But we have no idea who's playing whom. Yet.

If searching for exciting sports betting information (sponsored), the playoffs are on the horizon and predicting the outcomes could be fun. But first, the matchups need to get settled in these last two games. Here are the competitors:

Yankees

Orioles

Tigers

Rangers

Athletics

If the playoffs ended today (before tonight's action), the A's and O's would play in the wild card game and the Yankees would play the winner. That would leave the Rangers and Tigers for the other ALDS matchup.

Judging by the season's head-to-head matchups, the Yankees would prefer to face the Tigers. But there's a little more to it, I think.

Nick Swisher, A.J. Burnett power Yankees to sweep

The Yankees received a quality start from A.J. Burnett and a three-run blast in the fourth inning from Nick Swisher, as they completed their sweep of the Athletics this afternoon.

Scoreboard Says:
Yankees 4, A’s 2
W: A.J. Burnett
L: Gio Gonzalez
S: Mariano Rivera

Swisher’s Splits:
You would hope a switch hitter hits better from the left side because there are far more right-handers in the league than southpaws. That’s not the case with Swisher, who was hitting .306/.393/.408 against lefties compared to .175/.310/.275 against righties heading into today. His homer came off Gonzalez, a lefty.

Bartolo Colon notches shutout against A’s

CC Sabathia had thrown the only complete game for the Yankees this year until today. Bartolo Colon threw all nine innings against the A’s, and held them to just four hits and no runs for a shutout.

Scoreboard Says:
Yankees 5, Athletics 0
W: Bartolo Colon
L: Trevor Cahill

Gardy at Work:
Brett Gardner bunted for a single, walked, stole two bases and scored. You know who else had two steals? The catcher — not named Martin! (That’s Francisco Cervelli, FYI).

A’s sign Hideki Matsui for 1 year, $4.25MM

The 2009 World Series MVP for the Yankees signed a one-year, $4.25 million contract with the Oakland A’s today, according to Buster Olney.

Hideki Matsui, 36, posted a solid offensive year for the Angels this past season, hitting .274 with 21 homers and 84 RBIs. He played 119 games at DH and 18 in left field.

I think Godzilla likes the west coast; it’s closer to home.

Yankees news: CC & Grandy lead Yanks to sweep, A-Rod & Boras split, Aceves setback

I wasn’t able to post yesterday after the game because I was in class from 3:30 to 9 p.m. and then I worked on a project deep into the night. If you were in a similar situation, here’s a quick recap of what you missed.

• CC Sabathia and Curtis Granderson had huge days in a 5-0 win to complete the sweep of the Athletics. See if the NY Times thinks CC will win the AL Cy Young. On a side note, Dallas Braden had to leave after five innings with cramps.
• Alex Rodriguez and Scott Boras have officially split ties. According to SI, this happened a month ago when A-Rod sent Boras a letter.
• Alfredo Aceves suffered another setback and did not rehab with the Trenton Thunder last night. He’s visiting doctors in New York. It doesn’t look like he’ll be ready for the postseason, folks.

Yankees news: Teixeira’s hot, Lilly, September call-ups

A few Yankees stories broke last night. Let’s jump right in:

• Mark Teixeira cranked his 30th homer last night, a three-run bomb to right, to lead the Yankees to a 9-3 win and sole possession of first place. Tex is five for his last six with two homers, four RBIs and five runs scored.
• The Yankees won the claim on Ted Lilly last night, the final time for waiver trades to be completed, but the Dodgers pulled him back. This makes you wonder how confident Brian Cashman is in the staff. If I’m in his position, I’m looking to nab Lilly too. A.J. Burnett surely is feeling the pressure.
• Via The Journal News, the first three Yankees’ September call-ups are Greg Golson, Chad Moeller and Jonathan Albaladejo (unofficially).

And for your entertainment, go ahead and click through to the seventh slide in this top 30 nicknames in MLB history slideshow (h/t Hot Clicks).

Tex and Cano sound off in 11-5 rout of A’s

The Yankees made a fool of Cy Young candidate Trevor Cahill tonight. He allowed eight earned runs, his highest total all year, and the Athletics fell hard to the Yankees, 11-5.

Best of All: Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher collected three hits apiece: a homer and a double for Teixeira, a homer for Cano and two doubles for Swisher.

Marcus Thames added a three-run bomb in the fifth to put the game out of reach.

Javier Vazquez delivered another strong outing out of the bullpen and earned his first win since July 26. He just may have earned his way back into the pen. More details here as they become available.

Worst of All: Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson missed out on the hit parade. Of the team’s 13 hits, none came off Jeter’s or Granderson’s bat.

Coming Up: Game 2 of this four-game series is Tuesday night. It’ll be Vin Mazzaro vs. Phil Hughes.

Athletics-Yankees series preview

The Athletics are in town this week, and so is Dallas Braden. Alex Rodriguez isn’t eligible to return in time for Thursday’s affair, possibly avoiding a major conflict.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click here.

As for the rest of the series, the A’s are no slouch. They’re second in the AL West (well behind Texas) and hold the best team ERA in the league.

The Athletics pitching really has been phenomenal this year. However, I credit a lot of that success to their pitcher-friendly ballpark. Here are the splits:

Home: 2.86 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 458 Ks
Away: 4.17 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 397 Ks

The Yankees are just 14-13 in August, easily their worst month of the year, but still hold a share of the division lead and a 6.5-game lead over the Red Sox.

Head to Head:
The Yankees have won four of their six games against the Athletics this season, and swept them in Oakland last month. The Yankees need to take two games to secure a season series victory.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Athletics starters	Yankees starters
Mon., 7:05 p.m.	Trevor Cahill (14-5, 2.43)	Dustin Moseley (4-2, 4.53)
Tues., 7:05 p.m.	Vin Mazzaro (6-6, 3.61)	Phil Hughes (15-6, 4.12)
Wed., 7:07 p.m.	B. Anderson (3-5, 3.32)	A.J. Burnett (9-12, 5.17)
Thurs., 1:05 p.m.	Dallas Braden (9-9, 3.28)	CC Sabathia (18-5, 3.14)

Lineup Notes: Mark Teixeira is in the lineup tonight. He was in last night’s originally, but he was a late scratch. We’ll see if he’s healthy enough to play tonight.

Prediction:
The Yankees have a tough matchup tonight against a top candidate for the Cy Young Award, but I like the pitching matchups for the Yankees in the rest of the series. I bet Burnett brings his A-game Wednesday too. I say the Yanks take three out of four.

Tex’s 3-run jack keeps Yankees surging

Mark Teixeira’s three-run homer in the fourth and A.J. Burnett’s second straight quality start propelled the Yankees to a 6-2 win over the A’s to complete the sweep.

Best of All: Nick Swisher made his final effort for the Final Vote count by falling a triple short of the cycle and scoring twice. You have until 4 p.m. today to vote him in, so keep on texting!

Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez each pounded two homers in this series. This could be bad news for the rest of baseball, just as long as the All-Star break doesn’t make them go cold again.

Worst of All: A-Rod was the only starter without a hit. Shucks!

Of course, now that the trade deadline is nearing, the bullpen will start pitching like Hall of Famers. Once again, no runs through two innings of work by Damaso Marte and Joba Chamberlain.

Coming Up: The Yankees begin a four-game road trip with the Mariners tonight. But the biggest news is Saturday’s 3-D debut in baseball, starting with these two teams. And then again on Sunday. I would say, “huddle around a 3-D television,” but, like me, you probably don’t know anyone who owns one yet!

A-Rod, CC power past A’s in 6-1 win

Alex Rodriguez cracked two homers, including his 21st career grand slam, and CC Sabathia struck out a season-high 10 batters in a 6-1 drubbing of the Athletics.

Best of All: A-Rod drove in five runs and now has 597 career homers. Reaching 600 before the break would be a challenge, but not if he keeps up his pace from the last couple of weeks.

Sabathia’s excellent start couldn’t have come at a better venue; Oakland is the MLB city closest to his hometown Vallejo, Calif., so he had plenty of fans in the stands. He impressed by allowing seven hits , a run and three walks over 7 2/3 innings.

David Robertson retired all four A’s he faced, including two strikeouts, to close out the victory.

Worst of All: Besides A-Rod, the Yankees’ offense was very quiet; nobody else had multi-hit games. Brett Gardner, who hit leadoff for the second day in a row, Jorge Posada and Curtis Granderson each had a single.

Coming Up: The Yankees go for the sweep tonight with A.J. Burnett on the hill.

Vazquez sparkles in 3-1 win over A’s

There was nothing more satisfying than watching Javier Vazquez’s ERA drop below the 5.00 mark in the middle of tonight’s contest. The 3-1 win was just icing on the cake.

Best of All: Vazquez only struck out two A’s, but allowed just three hits and two walks — their only five base runners of the night.

Curtis Granderson had an RBI triple in the second and scored on Francisco Cervelli’s two-out single. After Vazquez allowed a sac fly in the third, Mark Teixeira provided an extra cushion in the sixth on a solo shot to center.

The Yankees’ defense shined when Granderson made a sliding catch in center and Alex Rodriguez made a diving play to his right.

Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera had quick innings to wrap up the team’s MLB-leading 51st win.

Worst of All: The Yankees managed just eight hits, with Brett Gardner and A-Rod both going 0-for-4. Other than that, the Yankees played a lot of good baseball.

Coming Up: The games don’t get any earlier this week for the Yanks; they play at 10 p.m. EST all week until Sunday.

Yankees-Athletics (Braden-less) series preview

The Yankees finish up the first half with a seven-game west coast road trip, starting with the Athletics tonight and ending with a four-game series with the Mariners.

The Yankees start the series atop the AL East with the best record in baseball (50-31), while Oakland resides in third place in the West with a 41-42 record.

Head to Head: 
The Yankees beat the A’s twice in their three-game set last time, but that wasn’t the real story. Alex Rodriguez and Dallas Braden exchanged words after A-Rod ran across “Braden’s mound.” Braden went on to throw a perfect game a few starts later and the rest is history. Now, there are even t-shirts for sale.

Braden is unfortunately on the DL and will not be pitching in this series. There’s still hope for a rematch, however, as these two teams meet again in late August.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Yankees starters	Athletics starters
Mon., 10:05 p.m.	J. Vazquez (6-7, 5.11)	Ben Sheets (3-7, 4.98)
Tues., 10:05 p.m.	CC Sabathia (10-3, 3.33)	Trevor Cahill (8-2, 2.74)
Wed., 10:05 p.m.	A.J. Burnett (6-7, 4.90)	Gio Gonzalez (7-5, 3.50)

Players to Watch:
Yankees: Rodriguez. He’s clearly not liked by this team thanks to Braden’s mouth. And I’m willing to bet no teams are very fond of him since he took a spot on the All-Star roster undeservingly.

Athletics: Daric Barton. Who? He is the A’s best hitter, hitting to the tune of .289/.396/.409. However, Kurt Suzuki carries the team’s pop. Watch out for both.

Prediction:
I’ve been right the past two weeks, so I’ll hope to keep my streak alive down the stretch. I say the Yankees have it set up for a sweep this series. Vazquez will lower his ERA below 5.00 with a decent start tonight and Nos. 1-2 will take care of business.

Poll Results: Still no respect for Braden

Dallas Braden is living evidence that even a perfect game can’t dig you out of a hole you dug yourself in the media. In my latest poll, 63 percent of fans still do not have respect for him (and I’m sure his grandma too).

I sided with the fans. Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in baseball history. It’s a miraculous accomplishment, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t translate to fame. Don’t believe me? Fine. Ever heard of a guy named Len Barker? That’s what I thought.

He threw a perfect game in 1981.

Barker finished his career with less than 100 wins and an ERA higher than 4.00

Enough about Braden and the perfect game. There is an exciting week ahead upon us. The Yankees play the Red Sox, the Rays and the Mets all in one week!

New poll: Who do you miss more? Curtis Granderson or Nick Johnson?

Yanks-A’s series in July could get dirty

Alex Rodriguez and Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden exchanged words in the sixth inning of today’s game. Here’s what happened and what was said after the game (via LoHud):

A-Rod: “He just told me to get off his mound,” Rodriguez said. “I was a little surprised. I’d never quite heard that. Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career.”

The story: The whole thing started when Rodriguez went from first to third on a foul ball by Robinson Cano. On his way back to first, Rodriguez ran across the pitcher’s mound, which Braden saw as a sign of disrespect.

Braden: “I don’t care if I’m Cy Young or the 25th man on the roster, if I’ve got the ball in my hand and I’m on that mound, that’s my mound,” Braden said. “… He ran across the pitcher’s mound foot on my rubber. No, not happening. We’re not the door mat anymore.”

Rodriguez later said, “I thought it was pretty funny, actually.” And Braden also said, “He should maybe watch his Captain a little more often.”

This will not be forgotten when the two teams face each other again in Oakland July 5-7. I’m sure A-Rod won’t forget this either.

Yankees turn triple play, fall to Athletics

The Yankees turned their first triple play (video) since June 1968, but the Yankees fell 4-2 to the Athletics in the series finale.

Quick ‘Cap:
The A’s mounted a 3-0 lead four batters into the game on Kurt Suzuki’s three-run bomb to left. The big hit came one pitch after a mound visit.

After a sac fly in the fourth to make it 4-0, Marcus Thames earned the run back with a solo shot to left in the fifth. Mark Teixeira, who DH’d for the first time this season, slugged his second homer of the season to make it 4-2 in the sixth.

After the first two runners got on in the bottom half, Suzuki hit a hard grounder to Alex Rodriguez, who stepped on the bag, threw to Robinson Cano at second, who fired it to first to nab Suzuki for the 5-4-3 triple play.

But there was no comeback in store for the Yankees, as Brad Ziegler and Andrew Bailey shut the offense down in the final three innings. CC Sabathia completed his second straight game in the loss. Full box score here.

Thoughts:
Choosing to take a nap during the middle of this game was my worst decision of the season. I woke up for the ninth inning, but Bailey made quick work of the Yankees for the save. The Yankees had won six in a row heading in, so I guess you can’t win them all.

Line of the Night:
Dallas Braden: W, 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, BB, 2 K. He baffled the Yankees with his changeup, but manager Bob Geren pulled him after just 81 pitches.

Up Next:
The Yankees continue their west coasts wing with a three-game series against the Angels this weekend. Full series preview will be up tomorrow.

Yankees-Athletics series preview

I didn’t expect the Athletics to be atop the AL West 14 games into the season, but they are, with a 9-5 record. The Yankees (9-3) are actually a half game behind the Rays for the top spot in the East.

Both the Yankees and Athletics enjoyed off days on Monday, so the bullpens will be well-rested for the three-game series in Oakland. And the Yankees should expect Derek Jeter to return to the lineup after sitting out Sunday with a cold.

This is the first of a nine-game, 10-day road trip for the Yankees, who play the Angels this weekend and the Orioles next week.

Pitching Matchups:

Date:	Yankees starters	Athletics starters
Tues., 10:05 p.m.	J. Vazquez (0-2, 9.82)	Gio Gonzalez (1-0, 3.38)
Wed., 10:05 p.m.	Phil Hughes (1-0, 3.60)	Ben Sheets (1-0, 2.65)
Thurs., 3:35 p.m.	CC Sabathia (2-0, 2.84)	Dallas Braden (2-0, 2.70)

Players to Watch:
Yankees: Jeter. Look for the captain to return strong from two off days. He’s had a hot start to the year, and he’s expected to face two lefties (Gonzalez and Braden), which is always a plus for Jeter.

Athletics: Daric Barton. Who? Their first baseman. He’s hitting .310/.474/.405. He’s second in the league in walks with 13, one behind Nick Johnson. I’ve never seen this guy before, so I want to see his approach at the plate.

Prediction:
I have a bad feeling about Oakland, especially after looking at the ERAs of the three starters the Yankees will be facing. This year’s offense has a solid balance of speed and power, but can they continue their ways out west? I say no. They’ll lose against both lefties.

Edwar an Athletic & changes to LCS

When Edwar Ramirez was traded to the Rangers earlier this month, I predicted he would get rocked in Texas. Fortunately for him, he won’t have the chance — on a regular basis, at least.

The Oakland A’s acquired Ramirez today for infielder Gregorio Petit, according to the San Francisco Chronicle (h/t MLBTR).

So now Ramirez will get a shot in a pitchers’ ballpark!

Prediction: He’ll still get rocked.

In other news… Tyler Kepner reports a minor change to the scheduling of the League Championship Series this year. The change: no off day between Games 4 and 5.

Shortening the series by a game may force teams to start their fourth starter, which the Yankees are now prepared for (assuming Javier Vazquez doesn’t pull a Carl Pavano).

Do you think MLB changed the rules to avoid teams, like the Yankees last year, sweeping through the postseason with only three starters?