By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–New York’s Chase Headley could have been speaking for either his struggling Yankees or their opponent, the scuffling A’s, when he stated his immediate goals for his team, currently residing near the bottom of the AL East standings at this still-early juncture in an always lengthy, big-league season.

“We have our sights on .500 at the moment,” Headley said. “If we get there, keep on climbing.”

Given that, Saturday was step forward for the Yankees, and a step back for the A’s.

Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven strong innings, holding the A’s to a run on five hits, in the Yankees 5-1 win at the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. The A’s have dropped three straight to New York after winning four straight, and after sweeping the Yankees in a three-game set in New York last month.

Sean Manaea saw things disintegrate in a four-run, fourth inning, that broke up a scoreless duel to that point. Rob Refsnyder provided the big blow when he doubled home a pair of runs, one of three hits Manaea allowed in the inning. The A’s rookie starter saw his ERA balloon to 7.62 in the loss, a number which could cost him his spot in the rotation pending the promotion of Henderson Alvarez, anticipated to be recalled from Triple-A Nashville with a clean bill of health.

Manaea felt he lost focus in the decisive fourth inning, but more specifically his fastball, plenty big enough at 93-95 mph, wasn’t reliable in terms of location. Refsnyder felt he waited Manaea out, finally getting something over the plate, and the young pitcher concurred, saying he wanted to pitch inside, but missed too often.

“I wasn’t executing the plan that we talked about before,” Manaea said. “It’s something I need to get better at.”

Offensively, the A’s felt the weight of a disabled list that has ballooned to 12 injured players with Josh Reddick sidelined Thursday after breaking his thumb. Reddick, Josh Phegley, Jed Lowrie and Stephen Vogt were all absent from the A’s lineup, with Vogt the only one not on the disabled list. The A’s makeshift lineup with Danny Valencia and Khris Davis hitting 3-4 managed just five hits off Tanaka and his array of pitches.

“Every now and then he’ll rev one up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “But it’s a cutter, it’s a slider, it’s a split, it’s a curve every now and then. He keeps you off balance.”

Adding injury to injury, Davis left early with a forearm injury incurred when he attempted to throw a runner out at the plate in the fourth. Davis’ absence is particularly troubling as he’s homered four times in the last week, and ranks second in the American League with 12 home runs on the season.

The A’s fell to 19-25 with the loss, suffering their AL worst 14^th loss at home. The Yankees improved to 20-22 after opening the season with 16 losses in their first 24 games. The win allowed the Yankees to escape the cellar in the AL East, but they still trail the Orioles by six games despite a season-best four game win streak.

“There’s a lot of guys here that have done this for a very long time,” Headley explained when asked if the team was concerned with their early misfortune. “They understand that these types of streaks will happen.”

The A’s look to avoid the sweep on Sunday with Jesse Hahn facing Michael Pineda in a matchup of big, right handed pitchers.