New York Yankees Aaron Judge rounds the bases after hitting a three home run off Oakland A’s pitcher JP Sears in the top of the fifth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Aug 26, 2022 (AP News photo)

New York (78-48). 3. 9. 1

Oakland (46-81). 2. 5. 0

Friday, August 26, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Your Oakland Athletics, whose won-lost record of 46-81 had them looking up at the rest of major league baseball except the Washington Nationals, sent an ex Yankee to the mound to do battle tonight with the AL East-leading Bronx Bombers, who had trounced them 13-4 some 20 hours earlier.

The result was a tight pitcher’s duel that ended with the visitors on top 3-2 but which could be considered a moral victory for an Oakland team that would not give up.

The only time I saw JP Sears, Oakland’s starter, pitch before tonight’s match up with the Yanks was on August 10. On that occasion, he hurled 5-1/3 beautiful innings of one hit shutout ball against the Angels before running out of steam and yielding two more hits, one of the infield variety.

After striking out Shohei Ohtani, who had gotten a single off him in the first, Sears gave up a three run homer that cost him and the A’s the game, which eventually went 10 innings.

The 26 year old southpaw went 1-0, 2.05 for the Yankees before coming to Oakland in the deal that sent Frankie Montás and Lou Trivino to the Bronx. Between then and game time, he was 2-0, 1.76 for the green and gold.

Sears pitched decently tonight, although he again faltered for one fatidic frame. He went six innings, allowing eight hits, one of which was a home run with two on base that accounted for all the runs scored against him, which were earned.

He also yielded four walks, one of which was intentional. The other was semi-intentional, and both were issued to the perpetrator of the round tripper, Aaron Judge. Sears K’d three Yankees and had a pitch count of 78, 53 of which were strikes. He took the loss, bringing his overall record to 5-1, 2,28.

On the mound for New York was 31 year old righty Gerrit Cole, making his 26th start of the season, for which he was 9-6, 3.41. His lifetime figures were 126-69, 3.22 over all and 5-1, 2.70 when facing Oakland, against whom he never had thrown less than six innings a start.

Tony Kent, Sean Murphy, Chad Pinder, and Stephen Vogt are the only Athletics he had faced in regular season competition, holding them to a collective .231 batting average. He signed with the Yankees as a free agent in December 2019 after seven successful years with the Pirates and Astros. He’s been named to the all-star team five times.

Cole was in fine form tonight, hurling 6-2/3 innings of one hit, no run baseball before Jonah Bride touched him for a solo home run, the only time an Athletic crossed the plate against him all night. All told, he pitched 7-1/3 innings, allowing three hits, two walks, and hitting one batter while striking out 11. He got the well earned win, bringing his record to 10-6, 3.31.

Before the game started, the Athletics announced that they had placed Skye Bolt on the 10 day injured list as a result of what they described as a right knee patella subluxation.

Right handed reliever Norge Ruíz also was removed from the roster, having been optioned back to Las Vegas. Replacing those two, portside pitcher Jared Koenig and infielder Dermis García were recalled from the Aviators.

Oswaldo Cabrera ignited chants of ¨Let´s go, Yankees¨with a triple against the right field auxiliary scoreboard to lead off the top of the third. The chants, now of ¨MVP¨changed to boo’s when, one out later, Sears conceded a walk to Judge.

The Yankee fans had nothing audible to say when Giancarlo Stanton bounced into an inning ending around the horn double play that preserved the scoreless tie.

Sears was in no position to grant an intentional pass to Judge when he came to bat in the top of the fifth with DJ LeMahieu and Oswaldo Cabrera on first and second respectively, thanks to back to back leadoff singles. The Yankee center fielder blasted his erstwhile teammate’s first offering, a hanging slider, 427 feet into straightaway center, and, just like that, the Bombers were ahead, 3-0.

Sears hung around for one more inning, a scoreless sixth, before being relieved by the freshly recalled Jared Koenig. Koenig threw three scoreless innings, a feather in his cap.

In the bottom of the seventh, with two out and no one on, Bride finally broke through New York’s hermetically sealed defense and spoiled Cole’s incipient shutout by lifting a 78 mph knuckle curve into the left field seats for his first major league home run. The ball travelled 376 feet and, given the speed of the pitch, Bride provided all of the power himself. It was only the second Oakland hit of the game.

Nick Allen got the third to lead off the bottom of the eighth. One out later, manager Aaron Boone called on Jonathan Loasiga to replace Cole. He closed out the inning with no trouble.

Wandy Peralta pitched the ninth for the visitors. Pinder whacked a one out double to right. Dermis García, the other new addition to the Athletics’ roster, lined an opposite field single to right that brought Pinder home to tighten the score to 3-2.

Peralta then fanned Bride for the second out. Up came David Mackinnon to hit for Stevenson The count reached 2-2 before Peralta struck him out swinging for the final out.

Tomorrow’s 6:07 installment of this four game serial will feature right handers Domingo Germán (2-2, 3.89) pitching for the Yankees and Adam Oller (2-6, 6.41) on the mound for the Athletics.