Oakland A’s starter Alex Wood had one his best outings of the season pitching five plus innings giving up eight hits and one run against the first place New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Thu Apr 25, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK.—The Oakland Athletics’ Mason Miller retired Aaron Judge with his first four-out save and the visitors defeated the New York Yankees 3-1 on Thursday night, splitting the four-game series in the Bronx.

Winning the final game of the series at Yankee Stadium was a big confidence booster for the A’s, who were swept by the Cleveland Guardians to start their 10-game road trip and fell in the last two contests against the Yankees.

“It’s a great bounceback series for us. We knew going into this road trip, Cleveland, New York and now going now to Baltimore, that we had a challenge in front of us with some good baseball teams,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay. “After getting swept by Cleveland and coming here, to split a series with the AL East division leaders right now, it’s a good sign.”

In the second inning, Jose Trevino hit a home run on a fly ball to right field to put the Yankees up 1-0.

The A’s answered back in the third inning, as Nick Allen hit a homer on a fly ball to left field and tied the game. Then Tyler Nevin hit a home run on a fly ball to right field and Darnell Hernaiz scored, giving Oakland a 3-1 lead.

A’s starting pitcher Alex Wood earned his first win of the season after allowing one earned run in a season-high 5.2 innings pitched. He triumphed in bases loaded situations in the first and fourth innings.

“This game could’ve gotten out of hand in the first inning, especially against a lineup like that… so it just felt good,” said Wood.

In the eighth inning, A’s right-handed pitcher Mason Miller relieved TJ McFarland with a runner on first base and struck out Jose Trevino on a fastball. In the ninth, Miller got Oswaldo Cabrera out on a third strike, allowed a single to Anthony Volpe, and struck out Juan Soto. Judge flied to right on a slider and Miller notched his sixth save of the season.

“The kid is impressive. He’s a power pitcher but he’s got a good slider to go with it and he showed that tonight a couple times,” Kotsay said of Miller. “He’s really embraced this role, he loves it, and you can see just the energy when he comes into the game. This is the first time we’ve kind of used him in that four-out situation and for him to respond the way he did is a good sign.”

Miller, who averaged 100.8 mph with eight fastballs, affirmed that the fastball and slider combination is his go-to.

“Yeah that’s my mix,” he said. “Those are the pitches I’m going to come to the guys with.”

The A’s (10-16) continue their road trip with a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles starting on Friday at Camden Yards. First pitch is at 4:05 p.m. PT. Starting pitchers for the Oakland A’s RHP Ross Stripling (0-5 ERA 5.34) for the Orioles RHP Corbin Burnes (3-0 ERA 2.76).

“We’ve got a task in front of us with going to Baltimore now,” Kotsay said.