Yanks see wild-card lead shrink

OAKLAND — CC Sabathia couldn’t get out of the fourth and the Yankees couldn’t get any traction against the surging A’s. Sabathia gave up five runs and the Yankee hitters couldn’t catch up against the A’s dominant bullpen, dropping the first game of a crucial series, 6-3, at Oakland Coliseum Monday afternoon.

With the loss, their second straight, the Yankees dropped to 8.5 games behind the Red Sox in the American League East, but perhaps more alarmingly the A’s cut the Bombers’ lead for the top AL Wild Card spot — and the home-field advantage that goes with that — to 3.5 games.

“Where we are in the standings in relation to them or in relation to the Red Sox is not really my concern,” Brett Gardner said. “My concern is that we start playing better.”

It was the second straight game in which the Yankees starter could not get out of the fourth inning, putting them in a hole. Monday, Sabathia went 3.1 innings, his second-shortest start of the season, allowing five runs, four earned on seven hits.

Luke Voit homered in his secondstraight game, a two-run dinger that briefly tied the game in the second inning. Andrew McCutchen had snapped an 0-for-7 streak with his first hit as a Yankee in the first — scoring on Aaron Hicks’ sacrifice fly. All three runs came off starter Trevor Cahill in his five innings of work.

The A’s dominant bullpen shut them down for three innings. Former Mets closer Jeurys Familia, the setup man here, issued two, two-out walks before winning an eightpitch battle to strike out Gary Sanchez and slam the door on the Yankees’ best chance to rally against the relievers.

“Matching up like that, ability and dynamic guys down there, that makes it tough,” Aaron Boone said of the A’s bullpen. “It’s hard, it’s that time of year. It’s hard. If you want to be great, it’s hard. We gotta keep grinding away here and do a better job of rallying back.”