5 things to watch as Yankees face A's in three-game set in Oakland

Here are five things to watch as the Yankees and A's play a three-game series in Oakland starting on Tuesday night...

1. Can slumping sluggers finally burst awake?

With Aaron Judge on the injured list and no return in sight, the slumping Yankee bats have been especially noticeable.

DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Volpe have received most but not all (more on that later) of the headlines for their struggles in June, but Antony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres have also been among the team's worst performers this month.

Rizzo has just 11 hits in 66 at-bats (.167) with a .498 OPS and only five RBI and Torres has 13 hits in 71 at-bats (.183) with a .609 OPS and only five RBI.

LeMahieu (batting .174 in June), amid struggles he called "beyond frustrating," collected two hits (both doubles) and two RBI on the recent homestand in 11 at-bats but had two strikeouts and hit into two twin killings. Stanton (batting .121) snapped an 0-for-20 streak with a single Saturday and followed that up with an RBI hit in the eighth inning of Sunday's win, but they were his only two hits in 17 at-bats in the homestand.

The most promising signs are coming from Volpe (batting .196). The rookie shortstop went 4-for-14 with a double and home run and four walks in the past six games.

2. Will Josh Donaldson continue to ride the bench?

Donaldson had a long conversation with manager Aaron Boone before Sunday's game after the veteran was not in the lineup for the third straight time, amid a month-long slump. The talk was so long the manager was late for his normal time to speak to the media.

“JD and I were talking,” Boone said. “It just spilled into a long conversation. That’s all.”

After the game, Donaldson added that the conversation was about "a lot of baseball stuff," and told the media that he did not think "it's as serious as what you guys are trying to make it out to be. We’re having a conversation. It happened to go over his meeting [with the media], which I had no idea about.”

Since coming off the IL on June 2, Donaldson has gone 6-for-48 (.125) with five of his hits being home runs. Boone said the former MVP, who is currently hitless in his last 14 at-bats, "should be an everyday player" was simply given a couple of days to work through some things.

“This is a little reset that I decided, a moment in time, that I felt like a couple days were worth it,” he said.

Despite limited playing time, Donaldson's seven RBI in June is still the second-most on the club. It will be interesting to see if the 37-year-old can add to that total against one of his former teams.

3. Would the real Domingo German please report to the mound?

In his first two June starts, German allowed just two runs on 10 hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 12.2 innings. He saw his ERA drop to 3.49 on the season (4.37 FIP).

But in his past two starts against Boston and Seattle, German allowed 17 runs (15 earned) on 15 hits with four walks and two hit batters in just 5.1 innings pitched. (That's a 25.31 ERA.) Those two bad outings pushed German's ERA to 5.10 on the year (5.30 FIP).

To recap the right-hander's season: A 5.54 ERA in 26 innings in April, a 2.54 ERA in 28.1 innings in May, with one of those starts involving an ejection and then a 10-game suspension for too-sticky hands, and now an 8.50 ERA in 18 innings in June with a start in the second game of the series on Wednesday to go.

It is anybody’s guess which version of the 30-year-old will take the mound next.

4. Will the B-squad keep it up?

Billy McKinney, as many expected, leads the team in hits (16), total bases (33), average (.302), on-base percentage (.327), slugging percentage (.623) and, naturally, OPS (.950) for the month.

Jake Bauers has cooled off a bit of late, but leads the team with his seven doubles and nine RBI and is second in OPS at .790. He also had a big outfield assist to cut down a run at the plate in Saturday's win.

And despite a tough outing on Friday night’s loss that saw Michael King allow a two-run shot in the top of the 10th inning, the bullpen worked 19.1 innings over the homestand and allowed just three runs (two earned) on 13 hits with four walks and 23 strikeouts.

With the bats not pulling their weight, the bullpen pitching to a 0.93 ERA and not allowing a run in five of those games kept the team afloat. And King allowed a hit but struck out two to earn his fifth save on the year on Sunday.

And it wouldn’t hurt if Harrison Bader continues to be productive since his return from the injured list (three hits with two doubles and two RBI in his last two starts), Tuesday’s starter Jhony Brito can build off a good performance his last time out (5.2 scoreless inning s with two hits, three walks and seven strikeouts against Seattle) and Boone can buoy the clubhouse spirits and keep a cool head should any umpire make a marginally bad call.

5. Yanks have to get a sweep

This isn't really a question, but a statement. And, yes, it is an unfair standard to set that the Yankees have to win all three games in Oakland, but ... they have to win all three games in Oakland. Just as they did in a three-game series in May.

After a surprise seven-game winning streak, the A's enter the series against the Yankees having lost 10 of their last 11. They now sit at 20-60 on the year. The brooms have to be out for Boone's boys.

The Yanks bounced back from getting swept at Fenway Park to go 4-2 on the homestand over Seattle and Texas despite being outscored 17-20. They beat two teams with playoff aspirations, they can't afford to play down to their competition against an organization more focused on moving to Las Vegas than anything else.

Entering Monday, New York (43-35) sits five games behind a surprise Baltimore side that visit's the Bronx for four games in early July. The Yankees have to be in striking distance to overtake the Birds for that series and can't let the opportunity to feast on the lowly Athletics slip by.