Tag: New York Yankees

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.

New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge bats during the third inning against the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. Judge reached first base on a fielding error by Jace Peterson, and Jose Trevino scored. (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK.—Rookie Jordan Diaz hit three homers at Yankee Stadium, but the Oakland Athletics still lost 10-5 on Tuesday night to the New York Yankees who welcomed their Captain Aaron Judge back off the injured list.

Diaz, a 22-year-old second baseman from Colombia, hit a solo shot in the fourth inning. He then had a leadoff drive in the seventh, as well as a two-run homer in the eighth.

“That was a pretty special night for Jordan, coming into Yankee Stadium,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay. “Pretty sure it’s his first time here, to have the game he had tonight says something about the young man. He’s got a special tool and he can hit and he showed it tonight.”

In the second inning, Jace Peterson singled on a fly ball to right field and allowed JJ Bleday to score, putting the A’s up 1-0.

Judge, who had two RBI in his return from a strained right hip injury, reached on a fielder’s choice in the third and allowed Jose Trevino to score and tie the game. Anthony Rizzo singled on a line drive to right field and Aaron Hicks scored. Gleyber Torres singled to center field and Judge scored.

Harrison Bader singled on a line drive to center field and Rizzo scored, then Jake Bauers hit a sacrifice fly and Bader scored, boosting the Yankees to a 5-1 lead.

In the fifth, Torres hit a homer and Rizzo scored, expanding New York’s lead to 7-2. After Diaz’s second homer, Bauers hit a home run in the seventh and Bader scored, making it 9-3.

Judge hit a sacrifice fly and allowed Anthony Volpe to score in the eighth, bringing the Yankees to 10-5 over the A’s.

A’s right-hander Drew Rucinski in his third start of the season allowed seven runs and six hits in five innings.

“It’s baseball, just got to keep grinding, you know,” said Rucinski, adding that pitching a “minimum five innings is always the goal, it would be nice to get six”.

Kotsay said Oakland’s at-bat’s were “great” and they had 10 hits, the same number as the Yankees.

“We actually out-homered them tonight with Jordan’s three,” Kotsay said. “Yeah we’re on the losing end of it, so again it really comes down to the three bases and the extra outs, in this game we ended up on the wrong end of it.”

The A’s are 2-3 in their six-game road trip. The three-game series at Yankee Stadium wraps up on Wednesday. First pitch is at 9:35 a.m. PT. The A’s will start Kyle Muller (1-2 ERA 6.62) and for the Yankees Jhony Brito (2-3 ERA 6.08).

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK.—Even with star Aaron Judge on the injured list, the struggling New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 7-2 on Monday night in game one of the series at Yankee Stadium.

A’s starting pitcher JP Sears allowed five runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings. A’s manager Mark Kotsay acknowledged that Sears’ slider became less effective as the game went on and that “tonight was for growth”.

“He’s a student of the game,” Kotsay said of Sears.

“I’m sure he’s down tonight based on the performance but overall through five innings, he gave us a chance to win a game and offensively we didn’t help him either. We had some good opportunities to capitalize… and we didn’t come through.”

Sears said he “felt good” and has been feeling as such for the last four starts.

‘They’re all great hitters over there, obviously,” he said of the Yankees.

Oswaldo Cabrera hit a homer on a fly ball to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning and Harrison Bader scored, putting the Yankees up 2-0.

In the sixth, Tony Kemp hit a soft ground ball to first baseman Anthony Rizzo and allowed Brent Rooker to score and cut New York’s lead to 2-1. Then Jace Peterson walked and Jesus Aguilar scored, tying the game.

But Gleyber Torres hit a home run to left field, then DJ LeMahieu homered on a fly ball to left center field and Rizzo scored, boosting the Yankees up 5-2. In the seventh, Aaron Hicks homered to right field and Jose Trevino scored to make it 7-2.

A’s outfielder Ramón Laureano is in concussion protocol and will remain day-to-day, Kotsay said.

Oakland (8-28) is 2-2 in their current six-game road trip. The series continues on Tuesday with A’s right-handed pitcher Drew Rucinski facing Yankees right-handed pitcher Clarke Schmidt at 4:05 p.m. PT.

The Yankees (19-17) are set on Tuesday to activate Judge who has been on the injured list with a strained right hip, so it won’t be getting any easier for the A’s.

The New York Yankees were knocking on the door of the base knock all night which led to a five run win to open a three game series against the Oakland A’s at Yankee Stadium on Mon May 8, 2023 (@Yankees photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The New York Yankees won the first game of three-game series with the Oakland A’s 7-2. In the first four innings of the game, the A’s starter JP Sears allowed the Yanks just one hit. Things went south in the fifth. The Yankees’ right-fielder Oswaldo Cabrera homered with a man on board to give the Yanks a 2-0.

The A’s tied the score in the next inning. Sears gave up a solo home run to Glyber Torres and a two-run blast to D J LeMahieu. New York added two more in the seventh when Aaron Hicks hit a two-run dinger to put the game out of reach.

The Yankees put two runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Center fielder Harrison Bader led off the frame when he tripled into the gap in left-centerfield. Sears retired Isiah Kiner-Filefa for the first out. The next hitter, Oswaldo Cabrera, homered over the 318-foot marker in left field. New York leads 2-0 after five complete.

The A’s tied the game in the top of the sixth. Brent Rooker singled to start the rally. Yankees’ starter Nestor Cortes walked Jesus Aguilar to put men on at first and second. JJ Bleday singled to right to load the bases. The Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone brought in Ron Marinaccio to pitch.

A’s skipper Mark Kotsay sent up Tony Kemp to pinch-hit for Jordan Diaz. Kemp reached on an infield single to drive in Rooker with the A’s first run. Sheal Langeliers struck out. Kotsay sent up left-handed hitter Jace Peterson to pinch-hit for Kevin Smith. Marinaccio walked Peterson to force in the A’s second run. Nick Allen hit into a double play to end the inning. The score is tied 2-2 midway through the sixth.

The Yankees sent JP Sears to the showers in the sixth. Sears struck out Anthony Volpe for the first out. Sears served up a gopher ball to Glyber Torres. The Yanks led 3-2. The next hitter Anthony Rizzo singled. DJ LeMahieu blasted his fifth home run of the year to give the Yanks a 5-2 advantage after six innings.

The Yankees continued the homer parade in the seventh. With one out, catcher Jose Trevino singled. The next hitter, the much-maligned Aaron Hicks, who had been hearing from the boo birds after his first two at-bats in the game, homered. The booing stopped as all Hicks heard was the cheering from the crowd when he crossed the plate with the Yanks’ seventh run. The Yanks lead 7-2.

The Yankees bullpen kept the A’s scoreless after the fifth inning to secure the win. The Yankees beat the A’s 7-2 to take game one of the three-game series.

Game Notes- With the loss, the A’s are now 8-28. The Yankees improved to 19-17.

The line score for Oakland was two runs, ten hits, and no errors. New York’s line was seven runs, nine hits, and no errors. Four of the nine Yankee hits were home runs. Sears was the losing pitcher. He is now 0-3 for 2023. Ron Marinaccio was the winning pitcher.

Sears’ line was five and 1/3rd innings pitched. He allowed five runs and six hits. Three of the hits were homers.
The A’s play game two of the series Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Drew Rucinski (0-2 ERA 7.71) will go for Oakland, and the Yankees will send Clark Schmidt (0-3 ERA 5.83) to the mound to face the A’s. The game will start at 4:05 pm.

The time of the game was 2:34. 33,011 fans were on hand to watch the Yankees beat the A’s.

Oakland A’s Brent Rooker (25) turns third base to score the A’s only run of the game against the Kansas City Royals at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City on Sun May 7, 2023 (@Athletics photo)

Oakland’s Relief Pitching Struggles in Loss to Kansas City 5-1

By Barbara Mason

The Kansas City Royals (9-26) hosted the Oakland Athletics (8-27) in game three of their three game series Sunday afternoon at Kaufman Stadium in Kanas City.

The A’s took the first two games in this series and were lookin for that sweep but they just couldn’t seal the deal losing to the Royals 5-1. Mason Miller who started for the A’s finished with six innings pitched giving up five hits and two earned runs and striking out five hitters.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning where the A’s tied up the game 1-1. Salvador Perez got the Royals up on the board in the first inning with a solo home run.

Ramon Laureano hit an infield single in the fourth inning that drove Brent Rooker home for the tie. Kansas city answered in the same inning when Maikel Garcia singled Salvador Perez home to take back the lead 2-1.

The 2-1 Royals lead persisted into the eighth inning where Kansas City broke this game wide open leading 5-1. Nick Pratto doubled driving MJ Melendez and Salvador Perez home. Michael Massey sacrificed sending Pratto home for the 5-1 score which was the final and Kansas City had avoided the sweep.

The Royals had outhit the A’s in this game 9-4. Oakland’s relief pitching was the culprit in this one. Again Shintaro Fujinami had a tough game going 1.1 innings and allowing four hits and three runs. He had a rough game one going 0.1 innings with three earned runs.

The A’s will now travel to New York for the ultimate showdown, a series with the Yankees. This will be a tough series for the green and gold. It will certainly test their limits. JP Sears (0-2 ERA 5.06) will take the mound for Oakland and Nestor Cortes (3-2 ERA 4.91) will start for New York. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 PM.