By: Eric He

The A’s were held to just three hits and fell victim to a costly error in a 6-2 loss to the Yankees on the road on Thursday afternoon.

It seemed promising in the second inning when the A’s scored two runs to take a 2-1 lead. Billy Butler doubled in Josh Reddick, who scored all the way from first. Then, with two out and Butler on third, Mark Canha hit one into the gap in right center to give the A’s the lead.

But the A’s wouldn’t record a hit from that point on, as Yankees’ ace Masahiro Tanaka pitched 7.2 strong innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out six.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ offense rallied against Jesse Chavez, scoring five unanswered to run away with the game. An RBI single by Mark Teixeira in the third evened the score, and then a line drive down the right field line in the fourth inning by Jacoby Ellsbury plated two more and gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead.

Oakland’s hopes at a comeback were made even slimmer due to a costly error in the eighth by mistake-prone shortstop Marcus Semien. With two outs in the inning and runners on second and third, Semien handled a routine ground ball off the bat of Ellsbury. but threw it wide and high of first base. Both runners scored and extended the Yankees’ lead to 6-2.

Chavez, in five innings, allowed four earned runs on seven hits.

The A’s drop two out of three to the Yankees after winning the first game of the series, and their AL-worst record falls to 39-49. They will take on the Indians on the road before the All-Star break.