New York Yankees’ Anthony Volpe runs home after hitting a grand slam in the fifth inning against Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium in New York on Wed May 10, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK.—The Oakland Athletics (8-30) fell 11-3 at Yankee Stadium in a Wednesday matinee as the New York Yankees (21-17) completed their first sweep of the season.

A’s left-hander Kyle Mueller got off to a rough start in the first inning, with Gleyber Torres hitting a sacrifice fly allowing Aaron Judge to score. Then Harrison Bader hit a home run and Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu scored, bringing the Yankees up 4-0. The ball passed the video board and A’s right fielder JJ Bleday tried to make a leaping catch, while a fan in the front row appeared to try to reach and make the catch. After review, the homer stood.

“There wasn’t interference in terms of the play with our defender but it did look as if the glove reached over the wall but really hard to tell,” said Oakland manager Mark Kotsay. “So, I understand why the call stood.”

In the second, Carlos Perez hit a home run to left field and Jace Peterson hit a homer to right field, cutting the Yankees’ lead to 4-2.

But the Yankees had an explosive fifth. Rizzo singled on a line drive and Judge scored. LeMahieu hit a homer and Rizzo scored. Then star rookie Anthony Volpe hit his first career grand slam, allowing Torres, Kyle Higashioka and Oswaldo Cabrera to score, and putting the Yankees up 11-2.

In the seventh, Bleday hit a home run on a line drive to right field, but the A’s failed to make any runs after that.

Muller allowed six runs and five hits in four innings pitched.

“When you give up four runs in the first it’s kind of easy to relax because it can’t get much worse, you know what I mean, so you just take a deep breath, get back to just focusing on the execution,” said Mueller. “And I thought it was pretty good from there on out.”

The A’s lost 7-2 on Monday night and 10-5 on Tuesday night, and finished 2-4 on their six-game road trip.

The A’s return to Oakland Coliseum to host the Texas Rangers Nathan Eovaldi (4-2 ERA 4.22) the A’s have not announced a starter pitcher on Thursday, with first pitch at 6:40 p.m. PT.