By Morris Phillips

Attempting to beat the mighty Yankees for the third straight day, the A’s were plenty respectable on Saturday, but it wasn’t the night for merely credible performances.

Instead, New York’s Carlos Beltran drank from the fountain of youth, then muscled up a game-winning blast in the sixth, and rookie Ramon Flores traveled all day from the East coast and turned in a pair of spectacular defensive plays in his major league debut.

Flores’ gems kept the A’s from running away early, and Beltran knocked in the game’s final three runs in the Yankees 5-3, come-from-behind win over the A’s.

The loss prevented the A’s from extending their best stretch of play in an otherwise disastrous, first two months of the season, and the win allowed the Yankees to maintain first place in the AL East, despite entering the day’s play just one game above .500.

For Oakland, most of their frustration came in the form of 12 hits—none for extra bases—that produced only three runs.  With numerous opportunities to chase Yankees’ starter Nathan Eovaldi, the A’s couldn’t produce the big hit, then saw their 3-1 lead evaporate soon after it was built.

“Early on you look up there and I think we had seven hits and no runs, and that’s hard to do,” manager Bob Melvin said.  “One extra base hit breaks it open or a little bit more.”

While the A’s were chipping away at Eovaldi, their starter, Jesse Hahn was doing his best to control the New York lineup one sinker and one ground ball at a time, a pleasing follow-up to his first ever complete-game shutout in his last start versus Detroit.

But this time Hahn wasn’t perfect allowing three hits–including a Brian McCann RBI single–in the first inning.  After the A’s built their lead, Hahn saw his sinker flatten out in the zone, and Beltran deposited the mistake beyond the center field wall.  The 6’5” Hahn was had, another case of a veteran taking advantage of a youngster.

“I thought he threw the ball really well,” Melvin said of Hahn. “A little different in what he tried to do today.  I thought it was breaking ball and changeup were better, pitched in a little bit better, but really it ends up being one ball that’s a little bit up to Beltran.”

It was the 377^th home run of Beltran’s 17-year, big league career, but only his fourth this season.  After a quiet April, the former Giant has been on his game, hitting .308 in May with all four round trippers since May 10.

“I’m just getting better results.  Sometimes I have been too passive at the plate, so my mentality is to hit,” Beltran said.

In the eighth, Beltran struck again with an RBI single scoring Mark Teixeira and providing a cushion.

Flores impressed the Yankees in spring training with his athleticism and batting stroke, and with utility man Slade Heathcott hobbled, the young Venezuelan got the call this morning.

Just that logistical issue of having to travel from AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre to Oakland—an all-day odyssey—and still be fresh for first pitch at 7:05pm.

Flores arrived more excited than travel weary and manager Joe Girardi plugged him into lineup batting seventh.

The rookie struck early, fielding Josh Reddick’s single in shallow left and throwing out Marcus Semien at the plate.  Flores’ throw was particularly accurate, but it arrived well before Semien allowing the catcher McCann to lunge back with the tag.

Then in the second, Flores was placed perfectly—shallow and near the line—when he broke on Eric Sogard’s foul pop and made a sliding catch through the A’s bullpen.

The Yankees bullpen shut the A’s down preventing any hope of a late, offensive surge.  Four relievers combined to allow just one hit while recording the final 13 outs of the ballgame.

On Sunday, the A’s look to capture their first series win in almost a month with Jesse Chavez facing New York’s Adam Warren at 1:05pm.