A'S STAY COMFORTABLE IN OAKLAND AS YANKEES LOSE AGAIN

At game time, the 70 degree, cool, clear air in Oakland Coliseum finished the job on the already cooling Yankee offense. The Yankee hitters turned completely anemic! Blame it on the transition from the heat and humidity of New York to the cool, clear air of northern California. Blame on the Oakland pitching, or blame it on Yankee ineptitude! Whatever the cause, the Yankees could not generate any offense last night.

No New York batter reached base via a walk in the first two games of this series, and as you know, both were Yankee losses. Curtis Granderson finally broke that string and worked a walk in the top of the sixth, but he was the last Yankee to reach base until a lead off single by Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning. More on that in a minute.  The walk saved the Yankees the ignominy of going three straight games without earning a walk for the first time since 1991.

Nick Swisher's hip-flexor strain/quad injury forced DeWayne Wise into right last night.  His offensive performance was similar to Cano's ineptitude.  Wise's three at bats produced two weak unassisted ground outs to first and a strikeout leading off the eight inning.  The Yankees did produce a lone run in the fourth inning.  ARod led off the inning with an infield single and subsequently scored on an RBI single to center by Eric Chavez. The Chavez hit followed ground outs by Cano and Teixeira that had moved Rodriguez to third.

 Phil Hughes, pitched adequately.  He struck out six, allowed four hits and two walks in 7.2 innings of work.  The problem was he allowed two monster home runs.  One to Yoenis Cespedes in the the fourth inning and another to Brandon Inge in the eighth.

(In Photo: Brandon Inge)
In typical fashion, Hughes missed location a few times and two pitches thrown middle-middle were hit hard, high, and far. In fairness, Cespedes is a red-hot hitter. He is now 18 for 31 since the All-Star Game, a .581 average, so he has torched a few pitchers other than Hughes. Likewise Oakland is a hot team at 13-2 for the month of July. Boone Logan recorded the final out for the Yankees in the eighth on a pick off play.  He actually picked off A's base runner Coco Crisp twice, but on the first play the Yankees badly botched the run down, and Crisp was able to safely return to first.

(In Photo: Sean Doolittle)
As for that single by Rodriguez in the ninth, Oakland reliever Sean Doolittle struck out Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira, and pinch hitter Andruw Jones in succession to end the game, earn his first career save, and secure the third consecutive one-run win, 2-1, over New York for the surging A's. With the strikeout of Cano in the ninth, Doolittle also stopped the second baseman's 23 game hitting streak.  Cano went 0 for 4 on the night, and frankly looked pathetic in the process. Weak ground outs to second and first followed by two strikeouts ended the longest hitting streak in MLB this year and the longest such streak in Cano's career.

The third straight Yankee loss to Oakland has this seven game west coast road trip headed for disaster.  The Yankees have lost three games off their AL East Division lead already on this trip, and the suddenly struggling offense, combined with the injuries to Brett Gardner and Swisher, offers little hope for immediate relief. Bottom line, the Yankees need to turn it around...fast.

This 2-1 loss to Oakland makes it crystal clear... the Oakland A's are very comfortable playing home and were able to keep the Yankees just out of reach 3 days in a row with great pitching.

They held the Yankees down and they just couldn't get over the hump. Meanwhile, it's left Yankeeland quite uncomfortable...we need a win today boys...let's do it!

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer




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