"Yesterday is history" is the only thing to say about that game/series this weekend. Now the Yankees will face the Mariners for a make-up game. Phelps vs. King Felix is going to be a thing tonight. New DP questions as well.

"D-ROB IS AN AWFUL CLOSER! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" -Stupid Yankee fans and Mitch

All that needs to be said about yesterday's game. Oh, and it's good to see that Chase Whitley is at least giving us great production, albeit small. Also, Dellin Betances can keep on keepin' on.

6/1/14 Daily Prediction Answers

Amazingly enough, we have a winner from yesterday's DP thread. Valentin Matos is that victor, with a resounding 1,000 points for guess Whitley as one of the two Best overall Yankees of the night. A sad boxscore, but a victory is a victory.

6/2/14 Daily Predictions & Fun Question

First of the month (using again cause Sunday is a bad day to ask this question): Recommend a restaurant to your fellow PSAers. Try to make it different than the previous month.

Longest flight you've ever taken, and to where?

Packing: How long does it take you to pack for a trip?

Favorite cookie?

It was supposed to be an off-day for the Yankees. Now, they send David Phelps to pitch against Felix Hernandez of the Mariners. This should be fun.

Go Yankees.

Even the best of closers stumble every now and then; D-Rob shouldn't lose his job because it happened to him too.

There's no getting around the fact that Sunday was an absolutely horrible day in Yankeeland. The team was shut down by Phil Hughes, who, out of pinstripes, finally figured out how to not get mashed at Yankee Stadium, and though they managed to take a slim 2-1 lead to the ninth inning, closer David Robertson had perhaps the worst outing of his otherwise- superb seven-year career. While the offense definitely deserved a large portion of the blame for their third straight listless outing against an up-and-down Twins pitching staff, Robertson took the brunt of the criticism for blowing the lead on a solo homer by Josh Willingham and for giving up the go-ahead RBI double to Brian Dozier. Matt Daley and Matt Thornton put the nail in the coffin by allowing all of Robertson's baserunners to score and making it an ugly six-run ninth for the Twins, but the goat was already decided.

It was Robertson's second blown save of the season in 14 opportunities, following the two-run walk-off homer he surrendered to White Sox slugger Adam Dunn on May 23rd. (Robertson saved three games in a row after that and struck out 12 batters in 4 1/3 innings afterward, but who's counting?) Thus, impatient Yankees fans are already suggesting (or in some dark corners of the Internet, demanding) that Robertson lose his job as closer to phenom Dellin Betances, who has been absolutely dominant thus far in 2014. To say that this knee-jerk reaction is unfair is an understatement and a classic case of the eye-rolling "what have you done for me lately?" attitude held by many fans.

It was inevitable that we would run into the discussion eventually. It was unlikely that both Betances and Robertson would pitch as excellently as they had through the end of May. Robertson just happened to be the first one who faltered with a bad game. There was basically none of this talk until Robertson godforbid blew a save, like even the greatest of relievers do from time to time. Up until Sunday, Robertson had a 2.08 ERA, just one blown save, a 2.1 BB/9, a 0.923 WHIP, and a .524 OPS against. You take those numbers any day of the week from your closer and their huge jumps today to a 4.50 ERA, a 3.5 BB/9, a 1.167 WHIP, and a .639 OPS against just goes to show how fickle small sample size statistics can be when it comes to relievers. Few people actually think Robertson is that bad a pitcher. He is much closer to the guy who was one of the best relievers in baseball from 2012-13, when he pitched to a 2.34 ERA, 2.55 FIP, a 2.6 BB/9, a 1.102 WHIP, and a .608 OPS against, just to name a few stats without delving into his crazy strikeout numbers.

That's the kind of reliever you want closing out your ballgames. When "unproven closer" Mariano Riverablew three of his first six saves as the team's new end-of-game presence in 1997, Joe Torre of course did not give up on him. Mo had already shown his mettle by running roughshod over American League hitters in '96--a few bad games did not mean he was ruined, or that former Braves closer Mike Stanton and his 0.00 ERA at the time should take over. Torre trusted the guy who had been so great for him in the previous year, and that is exactly what Joe Girardi is going to do now with Robertson.

For those expecting Betances to pitch this insanely for the rest of the season, take a step back and look at what he's done--a 1.38 ERA, a 0.86 FIP, a 15.4 K/9, a 2.5 BB/9, and a ludicrous 0.735 WHIP. Yes, Betances is likely to be a terrific reliever this year, but basically no one ever maintains those numbers, let alone in their rookie season. To expect that he's going to replicate his first two months as a full-time MLB reliever for the remainder of the season is setting expectations wayyyy too high. He wasn't even this absurd last year Triple-A when he transitioned to the bullpen, and not even reliever Craig Kimbrel posted such numbers in his outstanding Rookie of the Year-winning season. He's going to experience his own off-day or two at times, which will make his numbers look at least a little more normal. It's pointless to live in a sing-song land where relievers never falter; if Mo had his share of off-days, you can bet that Dellin will have his share of off-days, too.

Maybe the Yankees do let Robertson walk in free agency at the end of the season and let Dellin become closer then, but we are far from that point. Don't forget that Betances is still the same exact pitcher who just 12 months ago seemed like an absolute bust and who didn't have a bullpen spot secured at the start of spring training. Some people even wanted him cut altogether. Now fans want to give this very same pitcher the closer's job after only 23 games? Similarly hard-throwing reliever Brian Bruney once began a season with a 1.57 ERA and a .508 OPS against in his first 24 games of 2007 (while Rivera had a 5.94 ERA and three losses in that timespan as well). He ended the year with a 4.68 ERA and a .757 OPS against in 58 games total. A lot of things can happen between now and the end of season, and while I doubt that Dellin is due for a fall like Bruney's, his amazing start in '07 was just one example of how small sample sizes can play tricks.

I'm definitely a fan of Dellin and I was a big advocate for him to make the team in spring training, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Betances still needs to prove he can maintain productive numbers over the course of a full season at the big league level, something that Robertson has done for several years now. Keep Dellin in his already-productive role, trust the steady hand, and don't give up on D-Rob.

Today the Yankees and Mariners will make up a game that was previously postponed due to rain.

Lineup: Gardner 7 Jeter 6 Ellsbury 8 McCann 2 Solarte 5 Soriano dh Suzuki 9 Roberts 4 Johnson 3 phelps 1

— wallace matthews (@ESPNNYYankees) June 2, 2014

Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Jacoby Ellsbury make up the top of the order. Brian McCann and Yangervis Solarte bat four and five, while Alfonso Soriano returns to the lineup as the designated hitter. Ichiro Suzuki is in right field, while Brian Roberts is at second base, and Kelly Johnson tries once again to be a first baseman.

In case you were wonder, Robinson Cano will indeed be in Seattle's lineup despite missing the last few games with a hand injury.

On the Yankees' side of things, Shawn Kelley will throw a simulated game on Wednesday and hopes to get into a rehab game on Friday. If all goes according to plan, he could rejoin the team sometime during the series in Kansas City or Seattle.

Carlos Beltran played in his first extended spring training game today, going 0-for-3, but more importantly, he said "the elbow felt great." The plan is to get him into two more games before trying to get him back for the upcoming west coast road trip.

In case you forgot about Francisco Cervelli, he was also in that extended spring training game where he caught three innings behind the plate and and went 1-for-2 with a double and a walk.

For those that haven't heard, Yankees outfield prospect Ramon Flores suffered a nasty ankle injury while running to first base during last night's RailRiders game. He was unable to put any weight on the leg and will be placed on the 30-day disabled list, where he will hopefully make a speedy recovery.

It seemed like the offense would be the sole target of ire until the seventh when the pitching decided to fall apart.

Felix Hernandez and the Mariners popped into New York for the day to make up their rained out affair from earlier in the year. The Yankees countered by sending David Phelps to the mound. If you predicted that the Yankees would barely score any runs, congratulations. Obvious guess, but kudos.

The Mariners scored first in the top of the second. A leadoff triple by Kyle Seager set Seattle up nicely, and he scored on Mike Zunino's infield single. Phelps was able to keep the deficit at one until the fourth, when a really stupid thing happened. Seager led off the inning with a bloop into left that Brett Gardner made a sliding attempt on, but the ball popped out of his glove. Derek Jeter, thinking it was a foul ball, held onto it after it bounced up and hit him. It was live however, and Seager ran to third for a second triple while Jeter loafed about. He would score after Dustin Ackley hit into a fielder's choice. 2-0 Seattle.

The Yankees got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. A Brian McCann single was followed by a Yangervis Solarte double. Alfonso Soriano waved at three straight pitches, but Hernandez kicked an Ichiro Suzuki grounder which allowed both runners to score and tie up the game. Phelps was able to hold the Mariners at bay until the seventh, when the wheels fell off. The Mariners managed to load the bases with no one out when Phelps allowed a single to the weak hitting Brad Miller that plated two runs. After a James Jones sacrifice, Michael Saunders singled home two more runs to make the score 6-2 and chase Phelps from the game. And that was about all she wrote, as the Yankees failed to counterpunch after that inning. Saunders tacked on another run with a solo blast off Alfredo Aceces and Seager added yet another extra base hit with a three-run jack of his own to make it 10-2 for the Mariners just in case the game's final result was still left in doubt.

Phelps did his best to match one of the greatest pitchers in the game, but with the Yankees best relievers needing a rest there was no one to come to his aid when he was laboring in the seventh. His overall line will look ugly, but he was pretty solid overall.The game ended up being another cocktail of iffy defense, baserunning issues and general ineptitude on offense, so the pitching was far from the only glaring problem. Also, Aceves is still terrible and Soriano looks like he'd struggle hitting at Old Timer's Day.

The Yankees kick off a series with the mighty Oakland A's tomorrow at 7:05 PM. Scott Kazmir and Hiroki Kuroda are your probables.

Box score

Oh, and Felix Hernandez was wonderful. 10-2 Mariners.

An interesting thing happened today. This afternoon, the Mariners went to New York to play a makeup game against the Yankees, plopping Felix Hernandez right down onto the dirt of one of the most expensive and well-lit pitchers mounds in all of baseball. I say this is interesting because one of the best pitchers in the world was pitching in the biggest media market in the world, and the national media was busy talking about the Marlins signing a free agent pitcher and making random guesses about what team will eventually sign Kendrys Morales.

Why is that interesting? Let's see now...

• Yankees trading for Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez is not so far-fetched- John Harper, NY Daily News. August 16, 2012.
• King Felix to Yanks works for everyone- Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports. March 13th, 2011.
• NY Yankees Trade Talk: 10 Reasons They Could Land Felix Hernandez- Brian Buckley, Bleacher Report. January 13, 2012.
• How the Yanks could trade for King Felix: Andrew Marchand, ESPN New York. December 15, 2011.
• Will King ever reside in his kingdom?: Andrew Marchand, ESPN New York. August 4th, 2012.
• Fan report: Felix Hernandez trade to Yankees just a rumor: Ryan Christopher DeVault, Yahoo Sports. March 14, 2011.
• NY media won't stop imagining Felix Hernandez as Yankee: Dayn Perry, CBSSports.com. August 16, 2012.

Ah yes, this old familiar game. Doesn't this feel just like yesterday? Driving us to creating an apparently unofficial tagline for the man specifically to counter these absurd navel-gazing trade proposals? Scott and I were joking on twitter after the game about making this entire recap just verbatim lines from these articles. I seriously almost considered it. For real though, look through those links and get some laughs if you have the time. Thinking about that feels kind of nice, because today's silence from the New York banshee press following Felix's contract extension--and today's utter dominance in Yankee Stadium--is just about the best I-Told-You-So we ever could have asked for.

Felix gave up eight hits today. That's tied for second-most he has given up all season. And yet, after trouble in the fourth inning where he gave up his only two runs of the game, he settled down and retired the last nine batters he faced, striking out eight and walking none. After striking out Kelly Johnson to escape the seventh, Felix slowly jaunted back to the M's dugout, untucked his jersey, and did that little scowl he does when he's really rolling in the middle of something great. Somewhere up in the stands, a bewildered Yankees fan looked down in utter confusion, unable to understand how the King was still a Mariner after the Yankees first fixed their sights on him so many years ago. But for the first time in a long time, I think he may have been one of the few traveling down that train of thought.

But it did take Felix a minute to really settle down tonight. His pitch count was rising pretty early, and the Yankees were doing their best not to go down head first with the ship. The King's only real trouble came in the fourth, when Brian McCann singled before a Yangervis Solarte double. Felix got Alfonso Soriano to strike out swinging, and then Ichiro came up to the plate. There were two outs. Felix quickly got into a 3-1 count. Then, Ichiro was Ichiro and whacked a reverse strike right back toward the mound.

Felix impulsively stabbed toward the ball with his left foot, trying to stop it in its tracks. But instead, it was deflected into the gap between second and third, which sent Brad Miller twisting in his tracks to grab it. He seemed to forget that there were two outs, because instead of calmly gloving it and throwing to first to get the easy out, he tried to grab it with his throwing hand to Andrelton Simmons the ball in a flip second for the hard out. It got right past him, and two runs scored.

It was disappointing for sure, but it wouldn't really matter beyond impacting Felix's already low ERA, which, well, whatever. But what's kind of crazy about all this is that it's not unreasonable to imagine this game as a 10-0 shutout instead of the 10-2 walloping that it was. That might be grasping for straws, but you get the idea.

Regardless, after these two runs and a few scary moments to end the fourth, it was all but over for the Yankees. The M's first got on the board in the seventh, when Mike Zunino led off with a double, which was followed up by a walk to Dustin Ackley. Endy Chavez tried to sacrifice them both over, but everybody was safe, despite a replay review from Joe Girardi. No outs. Bases loaded. Brad Miller.

Well, he didn't hit a grand slam, but he hit the second pitch he saw right through the gap in the infield to score Zunino and Ackley, and in a way, it felt just like a grand slam. James Jones stepped up to sacrifice Miller and Chavez over, and then the whole thing was repeated with a Michael Saunders single into right field. The wheel of time, turning for the Mariners.

Speaking of time, I'm going out of order here to talk about Kyle Seager. In the second inning, Kyle Seager hit a sharp liner into center and made it all the way around to his usual home on third base. He scored the Mariners' first run with a Zunino single a minute later. But then, in the top of the fourth, Kyle Seager walked up to lead off the inning yet again. He whacked a ball in the air behind the head of Derek Jeter, who casually ran back to grab it, thinking it was foul. Brett Gardner made his way over in hot pursuit, and suddenly there were two pinstriped bodies entangled in a violent mess on the ground and one solitary baseball rolling away into the outfield. Kyle Seager made it all the way to third base. I was half expecting to see the God Hand from Monty Python pop up in the New York sky, subtly assisting our third baseman, who increased his OPS a full 60 points in three short hours today.

In the top of the eighth, Kyle Seager led off yet again...and doubled. Nothing came of it during the rest of the inning, but by then it was 6-2 Mariners, and everyone was sort of headed for the exits. Alfredo Aceves came back out for the ninth and got two quick outs, getting Brad Miller to ground out softly, and sending James Jones back to the dugout hitless in his New York homecoming. Michael Saunders walked up to the plate to ostensibly get the final out of the inning, digging his feet in. The two shared an uncomfortable silence, and Saunders eventually decided enough was enough, holding his hand up to call time. He stepped out of the box, and just then Aceves wound up and threw an 85 MPH meatball directly down the center of the plate, since hell, why not?

Saunders gave the umpire the dirtiest look a Canadian has ever given anybody in the history of the world (a mild glance of displeasure), and then settled back into the box. He looked at one ball, and then ripped the next pitch directly over the right field wall, since hell, why not? It was justice, sweet, sweet justice. As he round third to tag home for the M's seventh run of the game, he didn't take even a second to look back at Aceves, and the whole thing was a beautiful display of pure passive aggressive beauty. Michael Saunders is now truly a resident of the great Northwest.

Next, Robinson Cano came up to bat, and singled. Justin Smoak, the only Mariner of the evening yet to do something, took his lumbering arms and power bat to dribble a grounder just past Jeter into the outfield. And yes, up walked Kyle Seager. Dave Sims laughed that it would sure be funny if Kyle Seager hit a home run, and that Lloyd would have to order takeout for everyone in the dugout. So, of course, you can guess what happened next. He hit a ball right...here:

That's far. Very far. Dave Sims couldn't even finish his sentence, as he was snorting and chuckling in confusion. It was really something. 10-2 Mariners. Mike Zunino flew out to end the inning and Joe Beimel had a clean ninth to get the M's their 29th win of the season, sweeping the Yankees in New York and heading to Atlanta one game over .500.

It appears that everyone has finally stopped fantasizing about Felix Hernandez in pinstripes, and it couldn't have happened any sooner. The thing about those Felix rumors is that they didn't just start happening after one good performance in 2012 or anything (though many of those articles above were written the day after his perfect game). Yankees writers coveted Felix for a long time, and it took until Jack Z gave him an absurd amount of money to shut them up. The Yankees might make the playoffs this year and they might not, but if they don't, it will only be a matter of time until they are back in the swing of things. And you can bet that some wise souls out there already have already had their sights on who the Bronx Bombers should look at in the years ahead to get them there. I just hope that ah, okay this again, great.

Last Time on Pinstripe Alley

• Yankees lineup vs. Mariners - Injury updates for Beltran, Kelley, Cervelli, and Flores
• Yankees Weekly Preview: Athletics will make it tough to gain ground
• Take a deep breath and don't give up on David Robertson as Yankees closer
• Daily Yankees Predictions 6/2/14: We're Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today
• Yankees Mock Draft: Results from Minor League Ball
• Baby Bomber Recap 6/1/14: Aaron Judge triples and homers in Charleston loss

Yankees News

CBS Sports | Jon Heyman: The Yankees have reportedly reached out to Kendrys Morales, but nothing is close yet.

New York Post | Ken Davidoff: The Yankees aren't ready to look for upgrades until they see what becomes of Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran.

CBS Sports | Dayn Perry: The Yankees vs. Athletics series might be one of the more interesting matchups of the week.

ESPN New York | Wallace Matthews: Dellin Betances could end up challenging David Robertson as the Yankees closer of the future.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Everything you need to know about the 2014 MLB Draft for the Yankees is right here.

LoHud | Chad Jennings: CC Sabathia begins his rehab after undergoing the procedure on his knee.

New York Post | Zach Braziller:Derek Jeter says he will look into owning a team once he has retired.

Pinstriped Pundits | Chris Mitchell: A progress report on how some of the Yankees top prospects, like Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge, have done after the month of May.

NoMaas | SJK: Yankees prospects Jaron Long and Rob Refsnyder had the two best weeks in the farm system.

It's About the Money | EJ Fagan: Rob Refsnyder has become a much different player in 2014 than he was in 2013 and he's finding even more success.

Recapping the Yankees' minor league affiliates' results from June 2nd.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders:W 7-3 vs. Indianapolis Indians

2B Jose Pirela 2-5, 2 RBI - batting .318 this season
CF Antoan Richardson 0-5, 2 K
LF Adonis Garcia 1-4, BB, K
1B Kyle Roller 3-5, RBI - batting .307 w/ SWB
3B Zelous Wheeler 1-5, double, K
C Francisco Arcia 0-5, 5 K
RF Russ Canzler 1-3, RBI, BB, K
DH Corban Joseph 2-4, 2 RBI, K
SS Carmen Angelini 2-4, double, RBI, K

Brian Gordon 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, K - 58 of 86 pitches for strikes
Francisco Rondon 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, BB, 2 K
Robert Coello 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, K

Double-A Trenton Thunder: Off

High-A Tampa Yankees:W 8-2 vs. Fort Myers Miracle

CF Jake Cave 1-6, 4 K
SS Cito Culver 0-3, RBI, BB, 2 K
1B Greg Bird 2-5, double - sixth double of the season
3B Dante Bichette Jr. 1-4, double, BB, E5 - throwing error, seventh of the season
RF Zach Wilson 1-5, RBI, 2 K - batting .298 this season
DH Matt Snyder 2-5, RBI, K
2B Jose Toussen 2-5, RBI, K
C Wes Wilson 1-3, BB, 2 K
LF Cody Grice 2-4, triple, 3 RBI, BB

Conner Kendrick 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K - 3 GO/7 AO
Brett Gerritse 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, hit batsman
Alex Smith 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs:L 6-9 vs. Hickory Crawdads

LF Michael O'Neill 1-5, double, K
SS Tyler Wade 0-3, BB, 2 K, E6 - throwing error, seventh of the season
RF Aaron Judge 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, BB, K - eighth homer of the season, batting .321
1B Mike Ford 0-4, K
3B Miguel Andujar 0-4, 3 K - batting .211 this season
CF Dustin Fowler 0-4, 3 K
DH John Murphy 2-4
C Eduardo de Oleo 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K - sixth and seventh homers of the season
2B Gosuke Katoh 1-4, HR, RBI, 2 K - second homer of the season

Brady Lail 5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K - 6 GO/0 AO
Angel Rincon 0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB
Chris Smith 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Philip Walby 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, K

More great names, please.

The 2014 MLB Draft is only a couple days away, which means we are wrapping up our month of coverage on who the Yankees could possibly take with their first pick of the draft in the second round. Whether because of an awesome name or college bias, it's fun to have something to root for on Draft Day when the truth is that most of us know very, very little about the players that are incoming Yankees.

Here are some resources to help you find the player you think the Yankees should take with their first pick:

MLB.com's 200 Draft list

Minor League Ball's Community Draft

Minor League Ball's Top 350 list

Jesse's post on prospects that could fall to the Yankees

Caitlin's post on prospects that could fall to the Yankees in the third round

Obviously this is a trickier task because signing free agents in the offseason took a number of the picks that the team was originally going to have. It's a big departure from last year's draft when the Yankees had three picks before the second round.

Here are my picks for the best names (toward the middle/end of prospect lists) in the draft, because that's what I fall back on when I know very little about the players:

J.B. Bukauskas - RHP, Stone Bridge High School

Justus Sheffield - LHP, Tullahoma High School

Taylor Sparks - 3B, UC Irvine

Spencer Turnbull - RHP, University of Alabama

Dylan Cease - RHP, Milton High School

Sam Coonrod - RHP - Southern Illinois University

Joey Pankake - 3B, University of South Carolina

Ryder Ryan - C, North Mecklenburg High School

Cre Finfrock - RHP, Martin County High School

Justin Twine - SS, Falls City High School

Alex Pantojas - SS, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy

Cy Sneed - RHP, Dallas Baptist University

So, there you have it. Who would you like to see the Yankees take in the draft, based on whatever criteria you choose. Obviously the team's best bet is to take whichever player is the best among the remaining crop, but it never hurts to dream about adding some 80 grade names to the farm.

You can say that some of the Yankees' prospects are already All-Stars as four players from the Charleston RiverDogs will be attending the South Atlantic League All-Star Game in Hickory, North Carolina. Attending the festivities will be sluggers Aaron Judge and Mike Ford, along with pitchers Brady Lail and Caleb Smith.

The 22-year-old outfielder Aaron Judge was drafted 32nd overall in the 2013 MLB Draft and has been impressive in his first taste of professional baseball. The six-foot-seven monster has mashed to a .321/.416/.515 slash line with eight home runs, and is even taking his fair share of walks (13.4%). As exciting as that is to see, it's clear that Judge has mastered the Low-A level and needs to be promoted to High-A yesterday.

Mike Ford, the 21-year-old first baseman was an usigned free agent out of the Ivy League following last year's draft. He got off to an unassuming start in 2013, hitting .235/.346/.374 with three home runs for the Staten Island Yankees. After moving to the Sally league this year, he's seemingly taken off with a .301/.403/.481 batting line, along with eight home runs, four of which came in one game. While unsigned free agents almost always have the deck stacked against them, it's good to see that Ford isn't just a masher as he's walked at a 13.0% rate and only struck out at a 12.0% rate. Unfortnately, there's nowhere for him to go just yet as he's blocked by first base prospect Greg Bird at the next level.

Right-hander Brady Lail was taken in the 18th round of the 2012 MLB Draft and he's been impressive everywhere he goes. He finished last season with a 2.92 ERA and promising peripherals (1.2 BB/9, 8.2 K/9) in rookie ball and in 2014, he's continued to improve. While he has a 3.53 ERA so far, he's actually increased his strikeout rate a full batter per nine innings (9.2) while maintaining a low walk rate (1.7) at the age of 20.

22-year-old lefty Caleb Smith was taken in the 14th round of last year's draft and so far he's been one of the more underrated additions to the Yankees system. After pitching to a 1.93 ERA with a 2.8 BB/9 and excellent 10.0 K/9 last year in Staten Island, he has continued to be impressive in Charleston with a 2.41 ERA, and though his peripherals have backtracked just a bit (3.4 BB/9, 9.6 K/9), there's reason to believe he can continue to find success.

While minor league All-Star Games, especially in Low-A, mean very little, it's nice to see that the Yankees are producing players that are actually deserving of such an honor. These players should be rewarded for their awesome performances and hopefully they will find their way up a level sooner rather than later.

"Can't anyone here hit righthanded pitching?"

It seems like few hitters play the game quite like Alfonso Soriano. Last year, the slugging righty demonstrated how much he could carry a team while on a hot streak, as he hit .256/.325/.525 with 17 homers and a 130 wRC+ in just 58 games. The trade-off to those streaks though is that when he gets cold, he looks dreadful. After Monday night's disaster against the Mariners, the 38-year-old Soriano has now played in 52 games in 2014, just about a week's worth of games shy of his total in pinstripes last year. Contrasting his incredible run then, Soriano currently sports a mere .235/.262/.408 triple slash with only six homers and a 77 wRC+. Since reaching a season-high .826 OPS on April 24th against the Red Sox, he's stumbled to a .188/.198/.317 triple slash in 31 games. Woof.

While Soriano has been bad this year, it wouldn't make much sense to cut him just yet, as some fans have already suggested. The most obvious reason is that no one in the minors is banging down the doors for a spot in the outfield, but another point in Soriano's favor is the havoc he causes on lefthanded pitching. Much like fellow veteran Derek Jeter, Soriano still appears to have some gas left in the tank when southpaws are on the mound. Even throughout his struggles in 2014, he is batting a potent .300/.328/.517 with a 127 wRC+ in 64 plate appearances against lefties. Soriano has long made a habit of mashing lefties, and given the Yankees' desperate search for offense right now, it wouldn't make sense to cut that from the lefty lineup.

The downside of course is that Soriano has been terrible against righthanded pitching. After an 0-for-4 against Felix Hernandez last night, Soriano is now hitting .195/.221/.341 with a 48 wRC+ on the season when righties are on the mound. The obvious answer to this problem is to get Soriano's bat out of the lineup when righties are pitching, as he wasn't even hitting them that well last year when he was hot anyway (.236/.278/.456 with a 97 wRC+). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an answer in sight on the Yankees' roster.

What makes this situation weird is that the Yankees do have a lefty outfielder, an asset that would traditionally be the perfect complement to Soriano. The problem is that the lefty is Ichiro Suzuki, who is not like most lefties. Throughout most of his Hall of Fame career, Ichiro was equally as dangerous against lefties as he was against righties, but since the beginning of 2013, he has strangely stopped hitting righthanded pitching, a bizarre reverse platoon split.

Last year, Ichiro hit .235/.282/.307 against righties with a 57 wRC+ compared to a far-superior .321/.331/.421 triple slash with a 104 wRC+ against lefties. Although in a small sample size, that trend has continued in 2014 with a .288/.351/.333 mark in 74 plate appearances against righties compared to a .375/.423/.417 triple slash in an 26 plate appearances against lefties thus far. While his numbers against righties are better than both his splits from last year and Soriano's statistics, they also were likely affected by Ichiro's more restricted role prior to Carlos Beltran's injury. The extra rest might have kept him fresh with better numbers then, but in his consistent two weeks of starting since then, he's hit .229/.333/.229. Thus, it doesn't really seem like Ichiro is the ideal platoon partner for Soriano.

The Yankees do have one other bench outfielder on their roster right now, and that's switch-hitting Zoilo Almonte. When Almonte was in the minors, he was a better hitter against righties than lefties, batting .303/.377/.451 in 66 games against righties in 2013, and .323/.363/.583 in 32 games against righties in 2014. While that's encouraging, his numbers at the big league level cannot be dismissed. Almonte made a great first impression when he was called up last year, but since then, his MLB production has come crashing down to a .224/.258/.304 career triple slash with a 50 wRC+ in 132 plate appearances. He has continued to hit better against righties than lefties (.231/.271/.341 vs. .206/.222/.206 [ew]), but that's hardly inspiring either. The sad thing is that Zoilo is probably the best outfield option from the minors right now, as none of the current Triple-A outfielders (Adonis Garcia, Antoan Richardson, and Russ Canzler [lol]) hit nearly as well as Zoilo did in the minors against righties. The point is probably moot anyway, as Almonte will likely be sent down soon provided that Beltran does indeed return from the disabled list later this week, as rumored.

I wish there was a better solution about how to get the best offensive production out of the right field, but the best option is probably just to use Soriano against lefties and Ichiro against righties. Beltran will likely need most of the DH time when he returns, so one of Ichiro or Soriano is simply going to have to produce. Although Ichiro is unlikely to sustain his improved splits against righties this year, especially with regular playing time at age 40, there doesn't seem to be a better option out there right now. With Soriano looking completely lost against righties recently, they might as well just use Ichiro against righties and restrict Soriano to lefties while hoping that he can catch fire once again.

This article on the sad state of right field depressed me, so to cheer up, let's enjoy a video clip of Paul O'Neill's three-homer game:

The A's are coming to town tonight. What can we expect the tough AL West leaders to bring to the table?

The AL West-leading Oakland Athletics visit Yankee Stadium tonight for the first of a three-game series before the Yankees head out to Oakland for three games next weekend. Six games against one of the best teams in baseball right now in such a short period of time is kind of scary for a New York team that is really scuffling right now. Ahead of tonight's series opener, I asked Alex Hall, editor-in-chief of Athletics Nation (our SB Nation sister site), a few questions to try and get to know the enemy a little better.

I also answered some questions for Alex about the Yankees, which you can check out over at Athletics Nation by clicking here.

1. The Athletics' pitching staff has twice fallen victim to the parade of UCL tears around baseball this season. How have the replacement pitchers done in place of AJ Griffin and Jarrod Parker?

Billy Beane learned his lesson years ago about pitching injuries. Despite your best efforts, you will never predict or prevent them, so you can only prepare for them. With that in mind, he made sure to stock a few extra starting options so that he'd have them when he needed them. The only thing is, no one thought he'd need them so quickly! Beane replaced Parker and Griffin admirably, but the downside is that the depth is nearly dried up for now and Beane will have to go hunting to re-stock the ranks.

As for the replacements themselves, they've been fantastic. Tommy Milone is the most familiar name, since he spent the last couple years in Oakland. He had been ticketed for Triple-A to start the season, but he was pressed into Major League duty and, despite a rocky start, he has caught fire lately -- 1.67 ERA and 3.3 strikeouts per nine innings in his last five outings. He doesn't throw hard, so he relies on location and movement to keep hitters off-balance. Drew Pomeranz (acquired from Colorado for Brett Anderson) began the year in the bullpen but has moved to the rotation and found early success -- 2.59 ERA in five starts with a strikeout per inning. His performance has been about league-average with a sprinkling of good luck on some unsustainable peripherals (.237 BABIP, 92.1 LOB%), and he'll need to tighten up his control to take the next step. But his curveball looks nice and he's one step closer to becoming a legit MLB starter.

The real story, though, is Jesse Chavez. He was signed in 2012 as a total unknown, he established himself as a long reliever in 2013, and now he's made the jump to the rotation this year. Many of us wanted him to get a crack at starting last year, so this new development isn't completely out of nowhere, but the 2.78 ERA and 3.56 strikeouts per walk are far beyond any of our expectations. Chavez brings a wide arsenal of pitches, highlighted by his cutter.

2. Oakland is home to the best run differential (by far!) in baseball. Which players have been the keys to such a productive offense/pitching staff to this point?

The A's have a pretty balanced attack throughout their roster. Each starting pitcher has a better-than-average ERA, is capable of a scoreless outing on any given day, and gives the team a chance to win whenever he takes the hill. While the lineup certainly has its stars, almost all of the position players are above-average hitters; the ones who currently aren't, like Josh Reddick, Craig Gentry, Nick Punto, and Eric Sogard, play defense that falls somewhere between fantastic and game-changing. This is truly a team effort.

If I had to single a few people out, I'd start with Gray, Kazmir and Chavez in the rotation. They each have ERA's below 3.00 and are throwing at least six innings per start. For the hitters, I'd go with Josh Donaldson (more on him later), Brandon Moss (quietly one of the best hitters in the league so far), Yoenis Cespedes (streaky, but when he's hot he hits like a superstar), and the catching platoon of John Jaso and Derek Norris (both have OPS+ of 148). What it comes down to is that the A's have scored the most runs in baseball and allowed the fewest, and that's not something that happens without some help from everyone on the roster.

3. It seems like one of the most frequent discussion topics about the Athletics always involves the poor conditions at O.co Coliseum. What is the status of the A's possibly getting to call a nicer park home in the near future? What would you to remedy the situation if the decision was all yours?

In my opinion, there is not a less compelling story in all of baseball right now. I'm just bored to death by this, as it has deteriorated into political jockeying between MLB, the A's, the Giants, and the cities of Oakland and San Jose. At this point, five years after we all started talking about it, precisely nothing has happened and we are no closer to a conclusion than we were in 2009. Wake me up when Bud Selig has made a decision on territorial rights and when the A's have committed to the site of their next park, and then we can have actual news to discuss.

The O.co Coliseum is what it is, and its reputation is far worse than its reality. It's a bland, no-frills stadium with no visual appeal. On the other hand, it's got everything you need to see a baseball game, it's extremely easy to get to (BART, our version of the subway, stops right across the street), and there's usually plenty of space to spread out since it rarely sells out. I personally love watching games at the Coliseum, and I'm in no rush to leave as far as the ballpark experience is concerned. It's a dump, but it's our dump. As far as Oakland vs. San Jose, I can think of pro's and con's for each city and since my preference will not effect the final decision I am not going to get my hopes up either way.

4. If you were handing out a team MVP award today for the season so far who would it go to?

Forget the team MVP. If I was handing out the American League MVP right now, I'd give it to Josh Donaldson without even thinking twice. Here's what I had to say about him in a column on Monday:

"Start with the fact that he's the best player on the best team in the league. Then, move on to WAR -- Donaldson leads the league on both Baseball-Reference (4.5, followed by Mike Trout at 3.3) and Fangraphs (3.6, then Trout at 3.5). He's tied for third in home runs (15), and he's fourth in RBI (48), which are historically the all-important measures of MVP's. As for his fielding, he has accrued plus-12 Defensive Runs Saved, which trails only outfielders Jason Heyward, Juan Lugares and Giancarlo Stanton in the entire Majors; by the measure of DRS, Donaldson is tied with Troy Tulowitzki as the best defensive infielder in baseball and the best defender in the AL at any position. By virtue of small-sample UZR, he's third behind Heyward and Alex Gordon. Simply put, Donaldson is one of the five best hitters in the AL and one of the five best defenders in all of MLB."

He's hitting .284/.377/.550 and his wRC+ (161) is fifth in the AL. Compared with last year, his strikeouts are up a little but his power is up by a lot as more of his hard line drives have become hard fly balls (usually over the wall). If you don't like small-sample defensive metrics, rest assured that he passes the eye test and that his UZR and DRS were fantastic last year as well, so this is not a random fluctuation. Oh, and if you want your MVP's to come through in the clutch, Donaldson just hit a walk-off homer against Joe Nathan last Wednesday and then drove in the game-tying run in the seventh inning against the Angels on Saturday.

5. What advice would you give Yankees hitters about the probable A's pitchers they are set to face this series if you were the hitting coach?

If I had an answer for that, then 29 other teams would be fighting to hire me. With Scott Kazmir, I'd suggest swinging the bat rather than trying to be patient. He pounds the strike zone and you are likely to fall behind if you wait too long for him to either miss the zone or make a mistake within it. With Chavez, just hope that his breaking balls aren't sharp that day because if they are then the hitters will have no chance. With the way he mixes speeds and locations, he's just nasty when he's on. Pomeranz is the opposite of Kazmir; exercise patience and force him to throw strikes. He can get wild, and if you wait him out you can earn some free bases via walks and force an early exit by driving up his pitch count. If he's getting swings and misses on his curve, he's tough to beat.

6. Sean Doolittle went from a bust as a position player to one of the best relievers in baseball. What kind of Billy Beane magic allowed that to happen? What has been the secret to his success?

The secret to Doolitte's success has been being a pitcher and wearing an A's uniform. Seriously, it's impossible to explain at this point. Beane just seems to do whatever he wants and every pitcher he touches turns into a best-case scenario. Granted, there are plenty of guys who haven't panned out and have been swept under the rug after a couple of bad outings, but then you could also give credit to Beane for knowing when to quickly pull the plug on a failed experiment and move on to the next long-shot.

As for Doolittle, he pitched in college and could just have easily been drafted as a hurler. The A's liked him as a first baseman, but injuries kept him off the field and it became apparent that he would never carve out a career as an everyday player. When the A's decided to take another look at his pitching arm, he showed them enough to give him a whirl and he was in the Majors in a matter of months. He's got some heat on his fastball, a deceptive delivery, and fantastic control, but the major development this year has been his attempt to add a slider to his repertoire. It's been a solid addition so far and has room for future growth. The key stat with Doolittle, who is now officially the A's closer: 38 strikeouts, one walk. And dat beard.

7. The Athletics have been one of the best teams in baseball to this point in the season, but there has to be something that they haven't been amazing at. What has been the team's kryptonite/achilles heel so far?

The bullpen was supposed to be the biggest strength entering the season, but it's turned out to be the biggest weakness despite overall numbers (2.87 ERA, fifth in MLB) which look fantastic on the surface. Jim Johnson has been a mess and is now essentially a $10 million mop-up man. Luke Gregerson leads the Majors with five blown saves. Ryan Cook is on the DL, though he may return soon. Add it all up, and the A's lead the league in blown saves with nine. Granted, in order to blow that many saves you must also have a lot of leads to protect, but their inexplicable shakiness in the late innings explains why this 35-22 team is actually underperforming by a full six wins. Yes, that's right -- their plus-115 run differential leads to a Pythagorean record of 41-16. So, if it's a close game in the bottom of the eighth/ninth inning, take a deep breath and relax. It pains me to say it, but the game is not over and a comeback is always possible against this group.

Thank you, Alex! The first game of the Yankees/Athletics series begins tonight at 7:05 pm, with Hiroki Kuroda slated to start against Scott Kazmir.

Welcome back, Scott!

Having your team unable to score runs against the likes of the Minnesota Twins is really frustrating. That doesn't get easier when the Oakland Athletics visit Yankee Stadium for three games, entering with one of the best pitching staffs in baseball and a red hot offense. Hiroki Kuroda is charged with keeping the A's hitters in check tonight. Here's the lineup he'll have behind him. Hopefully they can stop doing that thing where they look like a bunch of little leaguers in the field and on the base paths.

Yankees lineup: Gardner 7 Jeter DH Ellsbury 8 Teixeira 3 Solarte 4 Soriano 9 Sizemore 5 Murphy 2 Ryan 6 Kuroda RHP

— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) June 3, 2014

Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Jacoby Ellsbury remain locked in as the top three hitters. Mark Teixeira returns to the lineup after receiving a cortisone shot in his wrist during Saturday's game. Hopefully that's a sign that he is feeling better, because Tex's bat has carried this team when he is on and the Kelly Johnson first base experiment has been disappointing to say the least. Alfonso Soriano couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat right now, but he'll bat behind Yangervis Solarte, who continues to be a revelation in a disappointing offense to this point. Brian McCann gets the night off in favor of John Ryan Murphy, who has swung the bat extremely well when he has gotten the chance to play. Brendan Ryan is at shortstop instead of the Captain tonight, which should make Kuroda a little happier.

Brian Roberts also gets the night off, allowing Solarte to play his more natural position of second base. Scott Sizemore, who was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre today, gets the start at third base. In 40 games for the RailRiders this season, Sizemore has hit .265/.333/.361 with seven doubles and one home run. His bat has been hot as of late, batting .326/.383/.488 over his last ten games. Zoilo Almonte was sent down to make room for Sizemore on the roster, which could indicate that Carlos Beltran is on the verge of a return. He's set to get some more reps in extended spring training before hopefully joining the team for their trip to Kansas City this weekend.

Tonight's game starts at 7:05 pm with Scott Kazmir going for the Athletics.

Update: More moves!

Michael Pineda was moved to the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster for Wade LeBlanc, who the Yankees claimed from the Angels. The Pineda move is retroactive, meaning that the team doesn't anticipate any change in the timetable they have already given for his return. Not sure why Alfredo Aceves couldn't be DFA'd to make room instead, as he has been nothing but terrible for the Yankees in mop up duty.

Yanks claim lefty Wade LaBlanc picked off waivers from Angels.

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 3, 2014

Pineda 60 day move was just done to make room on the roster. His timetable for returning hasn't changed

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) June 3, 2014

Girardi seemed unsure, but it sounds like LeBlanc will be with the big league team very soon.

Player Moves for June 3, 2014

Chances are you will never be on a job interview and asked about the intricacies of MLB's 40-Man roster waiver protocol.

On your deathbed, when asked for your life's shining achievement, please don' aspire to be the one who can explain MLB's policy for rehabbing injured players who are on the 40-Man roster but still have minor league options.

Of course, if you ever get a job in the Angels front office, by all means, master these loopholes, as Jerry Dipoto seems to have.

When the Angels sent pitcher Wade LeBlanc down to the minors, they were required to run him through waivers. Had no team claimed him he would have been off the 40-Man Roster and pitching for Salt Lake City. But a team claimed him and now he is the property of the New York Yankees. To make room for him on their 40-man roster, the Yankees moved pitcher Michale Pineda to the 60-Day DL.

Today was the deadline for relief pitcher Dane De La Rosa to finish his injury rehabilitation in the minors. He has not gotten anywhere near major-league ready and so the Angels removed him form the disabled list and placed him on the active roster for the Salt Lake Bees where he will rehab as part of live games in between rehabbings.

Is there an upside to any of this? LeBlanc was sheer roster filler. De La Rosa's absence is an extra chance that relief prospect Cam Bedrosian may make it to the big club sooner rather than later.

Tonight's game took a while to get going, both in terms of the on-field action and the game itself. After a 72-minute rain delay, the Yankees got on the board in as lackluster a way as possible — Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury managed singles, and then Mark Teixeira hit a pop-up that fell perfectly into no-man's land down the line in shallow right field. Alberto Callaspo couldn't get to it, Craig Gentry couldn't get to it, and the Yankees led 1-0. That lead that would hold until the 5th inning, as both starters — the Athletics' Scott Kazmir and New York's Hiroki Kuroda — cruised through the game's first half, Kazmir settling down especially nicely after his rocky start.

So fast-forward to the 5th inning, where Moss got a break on a very close 2-2 pitch from Kuroda. With the way he's playing right now, he's not a guy who can throw four strikes to and live to tell the tale. Lo and behold, Moss belted Kuroda's 3-2 offering deep to right-center field, tying the game at 1 and giving him his 14th home run of the game.

Yankee Stadium is, of course, the perfect ballpark for any left-handed power hitter. The notoriously short porch in right field, coupled with a pitching staff of hard-throwing right-handers, makes this place perfect for guys like Moss to tee off, something he's done throughout his career. Moss is now 8-for-18 lifetime in the Bronx, owner of an absolutely insane slash line: .444/.524/1.00.

All was quiet until the bottom of the 6th, when Mark Teixeira pulled a 1-0 two-seamer from Kazmir over the fence and into the bullpen in left field, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Kazmir got out of the inning without further damage and pitched into the 7th, putting runners on first and second and striking out Brendan Ryan before giving way to Fernando Abad, who got two quick outs to end the inning.

Kazmir's outing was fantastic, all in all, as he continues what looks to be a career year. He made a mistake on the Teixeira homer, but there wasn't much he could have done on his pop-up in the 1st. He ended up allowing six hits and two earned runs, walking two batters in the process, over 6.1 innings, and his ERA this season sits at 2.40. Kazmir struck out 10 on the evening, including five of the first six outs he recorded — that number is a season-high for him. Take Teixeira out of the equation and Kazmir was dominant; even with Teixeira, he was very, very good.

Trailing by a run in the 8th with two out and Alberto Callaspo on first base, Bob Melvin asked for a little help from his bench, enlisting Stephen Vogt to pinch-hit for Craig Gentry. Vogt didn't disappoint, belting the full-count offering from Dellin Betances to the alley in right-center, bringing Callaspo around to score and leaving the game tied at 2. It was a gutsy move from Melvin, especially with Josh Reddick on the disabled list — it mean that either Vogt or Kyle Blanks, neither of whom has much experience in the outfield, would have to finish out the game in right field. Blanks stayed in without incident, not that Melvin needed any vindication for the decision as it was.

Vogt's story is the latest in a series of remarkable rises on the Athletics' roster. Forget Josh Donaldson or Sean Doolittle — here's a guy who's toiled away in the minors for the better part of a decade. He finally sees some success in a two-month stint with the A's last season, highlighted by a walk-off hit in a critical playoff game, and then he doesn't even make the Opening Day roster the next season. Vogt was simply a victim of circumstance, but it's still incredible to see him get back to Oakland at a moment's notice and, in his second game back with the club, come up with the hit that kept the A's in the game and led to the extra-inning win.

Back to that extra-inning win — Abad walked Jacoby Ellsbury on four pitches to begin the bottom of the 8th, and Bob Melvin had seen enough. Gregerson did a phenomenal job of keeping him on first base during Teixeira's at-bat, varying his cadence pitch to pitch, both preventing Ellsbury from getting any sort of read on his motion. Teixeira struck out looking on a 3-2 fastball right down the middle, but Ellsbury ended up swiping second on the first pitch to Yangervis Solarte, and moving to third on a Solarte groundout. But Gregerson got an old A's nemesis, Ichiro Suzuki, to softly fly out to Cespedes in left field. Preventing inherited runners from scoring certainly hasn't been Gregerson's strong suit this year, but he got the job done tonight.

Things almost got away from Dan Otero and the A's in the bottom of the 9th, when Brian McCann put the potential winning run on base with a one-out single. But Donaldon made a heads-up play to nab the slow-moving McCann at second base and Jed Lowrie climbed the ladder on a scorching liner from Brett Gardner. If McCann were a faster runner, Donaldson would've likely taken the easy out at first base, and that Gardner liner could easily have been a walk-off hit. But the cards fell the right way, and the game went to extras.

With Yankees reliever Adam Warren on to pitch the 10th, Bob Melvin had exactly the matchup he wanted: Brandon Moss against a righty in a game where one swing could change the outcome. Moss worked the count full first, but did take that swing. His first home run was a line drive that just cleared the fence in right field, but this one was an absolute no-doubter, a blast high up into the second deck in the right field corner that gave the A's a 3-2 lead, their first of the evening.

But Oakland wasn't done. A walk from Cespedes, a double from Lowrie, and a single from Kyle Blanks padded the Athletics' lead, pushing it to 5-2. It could have been more, too, had Donaldson not flied out to center field with the bases load for the third out.

Sean Doolittle closed out the bottom of the 10th, giving the A's a win to start a three-city, nine-game road trip, and to push Oakland's record to 36-22.

Tomorrow's game is (gasp) on ESPN, another 4:05pm Pacific start.

Even though Hiroki Kuroda pitched his best game of the season, bullpen problems and a sputtering offense doomed the Yankees to an extra-innings loss against the A's.

After a rough loss last night to Seattle, the Yankees hoped to get off to a good start in what is sure to be a tough series against the Oakland Athletics. The A's are one of the best teams in the American League, but if the Yankees can take two of three from them, it would give them a lot of momentum heading into a weekend series against the woeful Kansas City Royals.

Simply put, Hiroki Kuroda was terrific tonight. He only made one real mistake, and he had a lot of late movement on his pitches, kept everything down in the zone, and produced the type of performance the Yankees got accustomed to during the first half of 2013.

The Yankees got on the board first, scoring in the bottom half of the first inning. Gardner started things off for the Yankees with a single to right. Mark Teixeira then hit a bloop single to right that dropped just inches inside the foul line, scoring Gardner (who made a great read on the play) from first. With runners at first and third and only one out, the Yankees had a chance for a big inning. But Josh Donaldson made a great play on a Yangervis Solarte liner to rob New York of a run and keep it 1–0.

The next few innings breezed by, as Scott Kazmir and Kuroda were both dealing. Kazmir had all of his off-speed weapons working, especially his terrific changeup. With the score still 1-0 in the top of the fifth, Brandon Moss ripped a 3-2 sinker over the center field fence to open the inning, knotting the score at 1–1. No one scored again until the bottom of the sixth, when Teixeira turned on a fastball and pulled it to left, over the head of Yoenis Cespedes and out of the park to make it 2–1 Yankees.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Yankees had a great chance to add to their lead. After a Scott Sizemore single and John Ryan Murphy walk, the Yankees had two on with no one out. But then Brendan Ryan failed to bunt them over, striking out without moving the runners. With two on and one out, Kazmir was replaced with reliever Fernando Abad, who then struck out Brett Gardner and got Derek Jeter to line out to center. The Yankees' inability to score in the seventh would turn out to be costly, as an insurance run or two definitely would've helped in the later stages of the game.

Dellin Betances, who had finished the seventh for Kuroda, started the eighth inning strong, taking care of the first two batters with ease, but then he gave up a walk to first baseman Alberto Callaspo. With Callaspo on first, pinch hitter Stephen Vogt clubbed a 3-2 fastball into the gap in right-center, scoring Callaspo and tying the game. While Betances then escaped without surrendering any more runs, the game was now tied 2–2, and Kuroda would not be rewarded with a win.

The Yankees, despite getting the leadoff man on in the bottom of the eighth, could not get anything going. Both teams went down in order in the ninth as David Robertson rebounded and pitched a scoreless frame. We went to extra innings and that's where everything fell apart. In the top of the tenth, Adam Warren took the mound and did not have anything close to his best stuff. Moss, the first batter he faced, rocketed a line drive into the right field seats to make it 3–2. Warren then walked Cespedes, who scored when the next batter Jed Lowrie doubled to center. As if this wasn't enough, pinch hitter Kyle Blanks then singled to center, scoring Lowrie. This knocked Warren out of the game, and Girardi brought in Preston Claiborne who, thankfully, escaped without the A's doing any further damage.

But the damage was already done. The Yankees went down in order in the bottom of the tenth to fall 5–2. This was a very winnable game, but the offense couldn't tack anything on in the later innings, and Warren looked about as bad as he had all season. Still, Kuroda looked terrific tonight, so this at least should give Yankee fans a bit of hope that he's finding his grove again and can help stabilize the decimated rotation.

The Yankees will try to end their three game losing streak tomorrow, as Vidal Nuno will take the mound against Jesse Chavez.

Last Time on Pinstripe Alley

• Yankees 2, Athletics 5: Offense and bullpen come up short
• Yankees lineup vs. Athletics - Scott Sizemore called up, Zoilo Almonte sent down
• Yankees Prospect Interview: Jaron Long
• Yankees vs. Athletics Preview: Q&A with Alex Hall of Athletics Nation
• Yankees stuck in an unusual outfield platoon conundrum
• Yankees Prospects: Four selected to the South Atlantic League All-Star Game
• MLB Draft 2014: Who should the Yankees take with their second round pick?
• Baby Bomber Recap 6/2/14: Aaron Judge hits eighth homer of the year in loss

Yankees News

New York Post | Joel Sherman: Masahiro Tanaka is already in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and All-Star, so why not MVP as well?

An A-Blog For A-Rod | Brad Vietrogoski: Alfonso Soriano has been absolutely awful so far this season and it's killed the Yankees' season.

It's About the Money | Michael Eder: It's time to stop using Kelly Johnson out of position and move him back to second base.

New York Post | George A. King III: The Yankees are hoping to have Carlos Beltran back by Friday in Kansas City.

Sporting News | Justin McGuire: A look at what scouts were saying about Alex Rodriguez before he was drafted 21 years ago.

Pinstriped Pundits | Chris Mitchell: A look at how some of the Yankees' other top prospects are doing this year, such as Peter O`Brien, Ramon Flores, and Rafael De Paula.

An A-Blog For A-Rod | Brad Vietrogoski: Brett Gardner and Masahiro Tanaka might have been the best Yankees for the month of May.

Baseball America | Matt Eddy: Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada are among the Yankees' best draft picks of all time.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: The Yankees expect Wade LeBlanc to join the team out of the bullpen fairly soon.

Recapping the Yankees' minor league affiliates' results from June 3rd.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders:L 6-7 vs. Norfolk Tides

2B Jose Pirela 1-5, triple, RBI
SS Carmen Angelini 1-3, double, BB, K, CS
RF Adonis Garcia 1-3, RBI, BB, OF assist
1B Kyle Roller 1-4, double, K - sixth double w/ SWB
3B Zelous Wheeler 1-4, double, 2 RBI, 3 K
DH Corban Joseph 0-3, BB
LF Russ Canzler 1-4, triple, 2 RBI, 3 K
C Austin Romine 0-4, K
CF Antoan Richardson 0-2, 2 BB, SB

Zach Nuding 6 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K - 51 of 79 pitches for strikes
Pat Venditte 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K - 0.93 ERA w/ SWB this season
Robert Coello 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, BB, WP

Double-A Trenton Thunder: W 8-3 vs. Richmond Flying Squirrels

CF Mason Williams 3-6, 4 RBI, 2 K, SB - batting .293/.370/.366 over his last 10 games
LF Ben Gamel 1-4, RBI, BB
1B Tyler Austin 1-4, RBI, 2 K
C Gary Sanchez 1-4, double, BB - batting .349/.391/.651 over his last 10 games
DH Peter O'Brien 1-5, double, K
2B Rob Refsnyder 2-5, HR, 2 RBI, K - sixth homer, batting .322 this season
RF Yeral Sanchez 1-3, 2 BB, K
3B Dan Fiorito 0-2, 3 BB, K
SS Ali Castillo 2-5, K

Manny Banuelos 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K - 22 of 34 pitches for strikes
Eric Wooten 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, WP, hit batsman - 8 GO/4 AO
James Pazos 0.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Fred Lewis 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, K

High-A Tampa Yankees:L 0-8 vs. Fort Myers Miracle

CF Jake Cave 0-4, 2 K
SS Cito Culver 1-2, 2 BB, K - batting .234 this season
1B Greg Bird 0-4, K
3B Dante Bichette Jr. 0-3
RF Zach Wilson 1-3, K
DH Matt Snyder 0-3
2B Jose Toussen 0-2, BB, 2 E4 - two throwing errors, fifth and sixth of season
C Trent Garrison 0-3
LF Cody Grice 0-3, 2 K

Chaz Hebert 3 IP, 8 H, 4 R/3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, WP
Stefan Lopez 1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Nick Goody 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Evan Rutckyj 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB
Phil Wetherell 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, BB, 3 K

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs:L 7-8 vs. Hickory Crawdads

CF Michael O'Neill 2-4, double, 2 SB, HBP
SS Tyler Wade 3-5, 3 RBI - batting .274 this season
RF Aaron Judge 1-3, double, RBI, 2 BB, K, OF assist - seven-game hitting streak
DH Mike Ford 2-5, RBI, K
1B Jackson Valera 0-4, RBI
LF Jose Rosario 0-5
3B Miguel Andujar 1-5, double, K, E5 - fielding error, fourteenth of the season
C Eduardo de Oleo 2-5, double, HR, RBI - eighth homer of the season
2B John Murphy 2-4, 2 K, 2 SB

Rookie Davis 4.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, hit batsman - 8 GO/1 AO
Omar Luis 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, K
Eric Ruth 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

A schedule of the coverage available for the draft.

For the past month, PSA has been gearing up for the MLB Draft. That has included daily articles about who the Yankees could possibly draft, a look back at previous prospects, and an in-depth look at the Yankees' system by position. If you need a refresher before Thursday, you can find all of that here. Since the draft is almost upon us, here's how you can watch it:

Day One - Thursday, June 5

6:00 p.m. EST - MLB Network - Draft Preview

7:00 - 11:00 p.m. EST - MLB Network - Live Draft Coverage (this includes the first two rounds, and the supplemental rounds)

Day Two - Friday, June 6

1:00 p.m. EST - MLB.com - Rounds 3-10

Day Three - Saturday, June 7

1:00 p.m. EST - MLB.com - Rounds 11-40

Unfortunately, MLBN is only broadcasting coverage of the first day of the draft, which will be the very early rounds. If you don't mind sitting around your computer, MLB.com will have a live stream of the draft available on all three days. If you're only interested in watching the Yankees' first pick, keep in mind that they don't pick until 55 rolls around, so there would be no need to tune in on time.

Do you plan on watching the draft at all? Vote in the poll below.

Hey offense. Try to score more than 2 runs, please? Please? Meanwhile, Vidal Nuno will take the mound against the A's in the second game of this series. PSA DP is back.

There was no Daily Predictions thread yesterday, and for that I apologize. Travel days are long and they suck, much like the Yankees offense as of late. Stop not scoring, Yankees. Please!

6/2/14 Daily Prediction Answers

It was a close, but we have a winner from Monday. No, the Yankees were not the winner. Far, far from it actually. However, the Daily Predictions winner is Travis Lincoln. He score 4,000 points for his victory. Huzzah & hooray!

6/4/14 Daily Predictions & Fun Question

Do you put fruit in your cereal? If so, which fruit?

Best mascot in all of sports? (None of them is an acceptable answer)

Do you have any irrational fears?

What temperature do you set your air conditioning to in the summer?

Vidal Nuno will face Jesse Chavez. We can hope for the best. I encourage all Yankees fans to hope for the best, even against the Athletics in these dark times.

Or, you know, panic...

The Yankees might never have become the legendary franchise they are without the help of one brilliant scout.

For as easy it is to tease baseball scouts like the producers of Moneyball did in 2011, there should be no denying the brilliant acumen of their finest workers. We can pore over statistics all we want, but finding the proper players to bring into the organization would be damn near impossible without the astute observations of scouts watching amateurs demonstrate their raw talent on countless baseball fields across the globe. The process of selecting these players is a delicate mix between the often-thankless work done by both analysts and scouts, not just one or the other. With the 2014 MLB Draft approaching and scouts across the game filing their final reports on the ~1,200 collegiate and high school players who will be chosen this weekend by the 30 teams, it's worth looking back on the career of one of the most important scouts to ever work for the Yankees.

On this day 57 years ago, a 74-year-old former baseball player named Paul Krichell passed away in the Bronx after a two-year battle with cancer. Born in Paris, Krichell and his family immigrated to the United States in 1887 when he was just five, and soon after his arrival, he fell in love with the game. At first glance, it wouldn't seem like Krichell's death was a very relevant note in the history of the sport, as Krichell only played two years and 87 games at the major league level (both with the lowly St. Louis Browns), where as a catcher, he hit a meager .222/.295/.259 with a 60 OPS+ in the heart of the Deadball Era, 1911-12. He played a few more years in the minors, where he was a player-manager, until he finished his playing career at age 35 in 1918. He was in a dispute with the Eastern League president, and he decided to quit. Krichell moved on to collegiate coaching at New York University in 1919, and it seemed like his nondescript baseball career was at an end.

WikiCommons - In 1911, Krichell wasn't much of a player, but he became a helluva scout.

Baseball's a funny game though. Among its feats are turning a six-year journeyman into one of the greatest managers in history and and turning a rail-thin infielder who couldn't hit a lick during his 10 years in the majors into the scout and general manager who would go on to lay the foundations for the most dominant baseball dynasty of the playoff era. Likewise, the game smiled upon Krichell, His former minor league manager Ed Barrow, now skipper of the Boston Red Sox, reached out and hired him as a scout prior to the 1920 campaign. Fortunately for future Yankees fans, Krichell only spent one year in the Boston organization, as Barrow was hired away by Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert in 1921. Ruppert installed Barrow as his general manager, a position where he excelled so much that he was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame. Like several other Red Sox employees and players later acquired, Barrow brought Krichell over from the Red Sox, and the young scout almost immediately helped make Barrow a success.

For the next 37 years (a timespan almost as long as Krichell's entire life prior to the Yankees hiring him), Krichell devoted himself to the organization. One early signing entrenched his place in the organization and made him Barrow's closest adviser. The seeds for the signing occurred when Barrow asked Krichell to go watch a game in the spring of 1923 between Columbia and Rutgers. During the game, Krichell was struck by Columbia's pitcher, who slugged two homers. His skipper Andy Coakley raved about the 19-year-old kid, who was not only a brilliant player, but also incredibly humble and courteous. Krichell and fellow scout Bob Connery went back to observe him a few more times, and in one of the games, he made their jaws drop with a 450-foot bomb that traveled from Columbia's home park to 116th Street and Broadway. Krichell and Connery convinced Barrow to sign the pitcher for $1,500 and convert him to a full-time hitter, and on April 30th, Lou Gehrig officially became a Yankee.

Signing the best first baseman to ever play the game was without a doubt Krichell's finest achievement, but it was far from his only one. A couple years later, Barrow dispatched Krichell to Salt Lake City to watch a hard-hitting 21-year-old shortstop in the middle of a phenomenal 60-homer season in the Pacific Coast League. Fellow scout Bill Essick raved about him, and Barrow wanted his best man to confirm the observations. Krichell was far from the only scout around baseball to be impressed the San Franciscan slugger, but many balked at Salt Lake City's high price tag for him. The Pacific Coast League was a powerful entity unto itself back then and did not feel obligated to just give away its best players--the Bees asked for a couple players and $50,000 in exchange for him. Krichell told Barrow that he was worth the price though, and the next season, second baseman Tony Lazzeri began his 14-year Hall of Fame-career.

Krichell very nearly signed another Hall of Fame first baseman, too. In the late '20s, Krichell had his eye fixed on a Jewish prep phenom who was tearing up his high school league right smack dab in the middle of the Bronx. He played semi-pro ball after graduating high school in '29, and Krichell got Barrow to make him an offer. Unfortunately, Hank Greenberg was quite aware of the fact that Gehrig wasn't going anywhere, and he turned the Yankees down to sign a contract with the Tigers, with whom he won two AL MVPs and hit a homer once every 15.66 at bats until 1946, including 58 in '38. Undeterred, Krichell continued to make fine signings, like pitchers Johnny Murphy, Hank Borowy, and Spec Shea, who all became vital members of championship teams. He also saw something during the summer of '36 in a small local shortstop that most other teams around the game dismissed. Krichell ignored concerns about his stature because several coaches wrote letters to him about the shortstop, and after the '36 season, the Yankees signed Phil Rizzuto.

Although Barrow retired in 1946, Krichell continued to scout for the Yankees, signing players who would make Larry MacPhail and later George Weiss quite happy. His last masterstroke occurred when he a decided to invite a local first baseman/pitcher to a tryout after the kid wrote him a letter. SABR's Dan Levitt recounted the story of how Krichell signed Whitey Ford:

Ford was both a first baseman and pitcher, but at only 5-feet-6 Krichell recognized his limitations as a first baseman. He took Ford aside after the tryout and spent about 15 minutes working with him on a curveball. Krichell later remarked: "I gave him a few pointers so he wouldn’t feel too bad about being turned down. We do that with all the kids who haven’t got what it takes. If we can’t make ballplayers out of them, we try to send ’em away as Yankee fans." Five months later Ford had grown and with Krichell’s curve developed into an excellent pitcher. Krichell outdueled the Giants for his services, landing Ford for $7,000, a decent but not huge bonus for the time.

Ford of course went on to become a Hall of Fame pitcher and the most well-respected arm in Yankees history. Krichell added one bonus to his record when he personally recommended to Weiss that he hire Casey Stengel as manager after the '48 season despite the manager's reputation as a joker. Krichell knew that Stengel was a great baseball mind, and the decision to hire him was still paying dividends even after the scout's passing in '57.

Few scouts have ever had such an impact quite like Krichell, and since scouts are sometimes lost to the history of the game and the more noticeable success of the players they sign, it's nice to be able to look back on one whose story has been documented. Here's to you, Paul Krichell, and here's hoping the Yankees scouts of today have passed on Krichell's tradition by making some great amateur recommendations for this weekend's draft.