BASEBALL:

fielder Corey Dickerson to lead off the sixth inning.

Later in the inning, an RBI single from Brandon Crawford forced Pirates manager Clint Hurdle to remove starter Ivan Nova, but the contact wasn’t any softer when reliever Richard Rodriguez entered.

On the first pitch of Rodriguez’s outing, catcher Nick Hundley slugged a three-run home run into the left field corner to break open the game and push the Giants ahead 5-0. The three-run blast was the fifth hit by the Giants this season after the club hit just seven all of last year. YANKEES 6, ATHLETICS 2 Giancarlo Stanton carried the offense in a victory

Aover the A’s on a chilly Mother’s Day at the Stadium, driving in three runs as the Yankees made it 19 wins in their last 22 games.

Stanton went 4-for-4, including his 10th homer of the season, making him 13 for his last 35.

The offense otherwise had a mostly quiet day but with Luis Severino on the mound, it didn’t much matter. The 24-year-old ace didn’t have his best stuff – at least, not the kind of stuff that allowed the right-hander to strike out a combined 21 hitters over his previous two starts – but that’s how high the bar has been set for Severino (6-1).

After Severino walked a batter but still pitched

a scoreless top of the first, the Yankees essentially put it away in the bottom half against lefty Brett Anderson, who came in 0-5 with a 6.81 ERA in seven career starts vs. the Yankees. Brett Gardner beat out an infield chopper for a single and Aaron Judge improved to 11-for-31 on this homestand by taking a 1-and-0 fastball down the right-field line for a double.

The A’s (19-21), who stranded two in the fourth, put two more on in the fifth but this time got on the board.

Jonathan Lucroy led off with a single and Marcus Semien singled with one out. Matt Joyce took a 98mph fastball for strike three but Jed Lowrie lined a single to right. Judge came up throwing and had a shot at Lucroy but Sanchez couldn’t pick clean

the throw home, making it 3-1.

Khris Davis followed and just missed sending a 98-mph fastball out, instead flying to the track in center to end the inning.

Stanton pushed the lead back to three with two outs in the bottom half, rocking a 2-and-1 fastball to right-center, his third homer of the homestand making it 4-1.

Mark Canha’s homer off Chasen Shreve in the ninth made it 6-2.