Yankees' Sabathia looks to stay effective against A's

NEW YORK -- In his last two starts, CC Sabathia's pitches appear to be crisper coming out of his left hand.

On Saturday, the Yankees hope Sabathia can turn in a third straight effective start when he faces the Oakland Athletics.

Sabathia will reach 10 starts for the 16th time in his career, and in starts eight and nine, he allowed a combined two runs and nine hits in 11 2/3 innings.

Before getting wins at Kansas City and Tampa Bay, Sabathia allowed 22 earned runs and 30 hits in 20 2/3 innings during his previous four starts.

On Sunday, in a 3-2 win at Tampa Bay, he allowed two runs (one earned) and four hits in five innings. He threw 95 pitches and matched a season high with six strikeouts while pitching to Gary Sanchez.

"I just think my stuff was a little bit crisper today," Sabathia said. "Sanchez did a great job behind the plate again. We got two-strike counts and even though they fouled a lot of pitches and ran my pitch count up a little we were able to finish when we needed to."

Sabathia is 10-11 with a 4.61 ERA in 30 career starts against Oakland. With the Yankees, he is 7-4 with a 3.38 ERA in 15 starts against the Athletics.

Last season, he allowed one run and three hits in six innings in an 8-3 win at Oakland on May 20.

Sean Manaea was scheduled to pitch for the A's Saturday, but he pitched Friday after Kendall Graveman stayed behind to get his sore right shoulder checked out. Instead Jharel Cotton will make his eighth start Saturday after finding out Thursday, he was rejoining Oakland. This will be the first time he faces the Yankees.

Cotton had mixed results during his first stint on the major league roster. He was 3-4 with a 5.68 ERA and a .282 opponents' batting average before being sent down to Triple-A Nashville on May 11.

"I worked on keeping the ball down, mixing my pitches, throwing in, getting better fastball command, that's about it right there," Cotton said Friday.

Cotton posted a 7.36 ERA in his last two starts, but in the minors the right-hander was 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a .200 opponents' batting average in two starts. He walked one hitter in 12 innings there after walking 16 in his 38 innings with Oakland.

"You come to the big leagues like he did last year," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "You had a lot of success and then you have teams start to make adjustments to you and that's what longevity in the big leagues is all about. So you got to figure out what the next adjustment that you need to make and that's probably one of the areas he needs to concentrate on."

He last pitched Sunday at Sacramento when he struck out nine and allowed three hits in seven innings of a 4-0 win.

Saturday will be his first start in the Eastern Time Zone and he is 2-1 with a 2.96 ERA in five road starts compared to the 4.95 ERA in seven career starts in Oakland.

But regardless of where the game is being played, Cotton is excited to be back after a short trip to the minors.

"It feels good, he said. "It feels great. I can't stop smiling."

The Yankees will be smiling if Sabathia pitches as well as Masahiro Tanaka did Friday, although they would prefer a win.

Tanaka struck out a career-high 13 in 7 1/3 innings but Oakland opened the series with a 4-1 victory.

The Yankees were held to five hits and scored their lone run on a sacrifice fly by Didi Gregorius in the ninth.

"We're not going to score seven, eight runs every night," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "We haven't had any big offensive outbursts lately but we'll get going again."

Oakland won for the sixth time in nine games. Jed Lowrie had three hits, including the tie-breaking RBI single in the eighth off Tyler Clippard.

He is 16-for-29 in his last seven games after going 4-for-31.

"It's great," Oakland left fielder Khris Davis said. "Somebody's got to hit .300. All year he's been our most consistent hitter, our best hitter."