Cotton’s no-hit bid ends in 6th inning

NEW YORK — Except for the very beginning and the end of his outing Saturday, Jharel Cotton was sensational, with a masterful in-between.

Cotton, called back up after injuries to starting pitchers Kendall Graveman and Jesse Hahn, didn’t allow a hit until the sixth, when with two outs and one on, onetime A’s outfielder Matt Holliday blasted a homer to left, the winning blow as the Yankees topped Oakland 3-2.

Cotton was all over the place in the first, with a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch ahead of a sacrifice fly.

“Pitching at Yankee Stadium was a great feeling and I wanted it to be spectacular, so I guess I was too amped up,” Cotton said.

That left the rookie in the strange position much of the day of allowing no hits while trailing 1-0. The A’s tied the score in the sixth before Holliday moved New York back ahead.

“I wanted to go out and get through the sixth inning with no hits, but I guess I thought about it too much,” said Cotton, who tried to throw a cutter away to Holliday but left it over the middle.

Cotton left after a single by Starlin Castro, having thrown a season-high 107 pitches. He walked three, two of whom scored, and he struck out five. Making his day all the more remarkable, he was working essentially without his best

pitch, his changeup. He didn’t have much of a feel for it and threw it only 10 times, he said. He made up for it with a wicked cutter that accounted for the majority of the swinging strikes he threw.

“A great recovery, about as good as I’ve seen,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of Cotton’s switcheroo from too wild to unhittable.

Like his day Saturday, Cotton’s season is a little all over the map, with a few superb starts sprinkled among some real stinkers. He was 3-4 with a 5.68 ERA in seven starts before being demoted May 11, but he was 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA at Triple-A Nashville and he was fantastic in September, going 2-2 with a 2.15 ERA in five starts. There’s no question he’s talented enough to be part of the big-league staff, it’s just a matter of tweaks here and there and gaining experience.

“The one thing he can take away from today is that he can be a really, really good pitcher. He’s just got to trust it,” catcher Josh Phegley said. “He controls

his own destiny. If he throws strikes and gets after hitters, that’s the kind of outing he can put together.”

The A’s didn’t do much against CC Sabathia until, with two out in the sixth, Khris Davis walked and Ryon Healy ripped a double down the left-field line. Davis, whose determined dash to first on a grounder got Oakland an extra run the night before, blazed full speed around from first. “He hustles,” Melvin said. “He comes to play.”

The Yankees then turned in a circus play. With a man at second, Trevor Plouffe hit a deep popup to the right side, and Castro drifted back toward right field for the ball, but it popped out of his glove — and directly into Aaron Judge’s glove as the right fielder raced in.

In the seventh, Phegley lined a one-out homer to left to cut New York’s lead to one.