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Pitching highlights Yankees-A's finale

Jul 1, 2007 - 1:47 PM Oakland (41-39) at NY Yankees (37-40), 1:05 pm EDT

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- A struggling New York Yankees offense will have to try to right the ship against one of the finest young arms in the game Sunday when they host Dan Haren and the Oakland Athletics in the rubber game of a three-game series.

New York is just 2-8 over its last 10 games and has scored a total of 23 runs over that span - not including last Thursday's contest in Baltimore that was suspended in the eighth inning due to rain.

After scoring a pair of runs in the first inning on Friday night and hanging on to win, 2-1, the Yankees have gone 16 frames without plating a runner, getting one-hit on Saturday by a combination of Chad Gaudin and Rich Harden in a 7-0 defeat.

Haren (9-2, 1.91 ERA) will be their toughest test of the stretch. The front-runner to start the All-Star game for the American League, Haren has a commanding lead in the AL ERA race and has not lost a start since April 7.

The young righthander has been sharp against New York in his career, going 3-0 with a 3.11 ERA in six starts.

The Yankees will counter with Andy Pettitte (4-5, 3.24), who has been a victim of poor run support all season. The veteran lefthander has eight starts this season in which he has allowed three earned runs or less - only to suffer a no decision or take the loss due to a suspect bullpen and a lineup that just cannot seem to shake a collective slump.

Pettitte took a no decision against Oakland on April 15 despite allowing only one earned run.