By Morris Phillips

The A’s may officially be baseball’s second-best team, but on days like Sunday, they look the best by a wide margin. Just ask the Yankees, who fell to the A’s 10-5 after falling behind 10-0 after just four innings.

The win was the A’s second straight over New York after Friday’s humbling 7-0 loss and allowed the A’s to extend their lead in the AL West to 4 ½ games after the Angels fell in Atlanta on Sunday night. But what continues to standout about this club, is their statistical dominance which at least argumentatively places them above all 29 other clubs. After 69 games, the A’s have allowed the fewest runs in baseball while scoring the second-most. In terms of runs differential, no one’s close to Oakland with that number standing at +132 after Sunday’s blowout.

“What is says that we are able to get starters out of the game early like we did today and get into parts of the bullpen that aren’t as significant as the back end of it,” manager Bob Melvin said.

The A’s used the long ball to dispatch the Yankees on Sunday starting in the first inning when Derek Norris connected for a three-run shot off New York starter Vidal Nuno. Coco Crisp hit his fifth homer of the season in the second inning—also with two runners aboard—and the A’s had a quick 6-0 lead.

Starter Jesse Chavez took the ball from there, going six innings allowing just five hits and a run. Melvin then pulled the plug on Chavez who at the age of 30 has never thrown more than 100 innings at the major league level. Chavez threw 89 pitches, but it was quality over quantity, according to Melvin.

“You could tell right away he was on it pretty good,” Melvin said. “Cutter to both sides to the plate, good curveball to create a gap between the hard stuff and the off-speed stuff. Threw a few good changeups; the first 60 pitches were really good.”

For New York, Nuno was gone two batters into the fourth inning, allowing eight runs on eight hits. Nuno saw his record fall to 1-3 while Chavez improved to 6-4.

Derek Jeter was honored before the game by the A’s in his last regular season game at the Coliseum. Jeter finished the game 1 for 3 with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning that trimmed the A’s lead to 10-3. Jeter’s decision to return to baseball for one more year after his injury-marred 2013 season has paid off so far with the shortstop hitting .271 on the season.

A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson was dropped to sixth in the lineup due to his prolonged slump, but he came up with an RBI single in the fourth that put the A’s up 10-0.   The A’s managed 12 hits on the afternoon with all but Jed Lowrie and Brandon Moss producing at least one hit in their starting lineup.

On Monday, the A’s continue their 10-game homestand with three games against Texas. The Rangers’ Colby Lewis will face Oakland’s Drew Pomeranz in the 7:05pm contest.