Big inning enough to complete sweep
Khris Davis homers to back Cotton
The A’s clubhouse had a nightclub feel, complete with lights flashing through a spectrum of colors and music blasting at a near-deafening volume.
“The vibe is good right now, and it’s growing,” starting pitcher Jharel Cotton said. “I think we’re confident, and we’re only going to get that much better. “I just love it.” That’s what a four-game sweep of the Yankees will do for a team, a feat the A’s accomplished on a scorching hot Sunday afternoon with a 4-3 victory in front of a crowd of more than 34,000 at the Coliseum.
The A’s snapped a string of 26 series without a sweep, a streak that dates to beating Kansas City four straight in September. They hadn’t swept a four-game series in Oakland since victimizing Toronto in July 2014.
“Against a team of that caliber, it’s tough to sweep a threegame series, let alone a fourgame series,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said after sending the Yankees away on a six-game skid. “… It was a big series, especially for the younger guys. … To know that you can have a series like this gives you a lot of confidence in yourself and the team.”
Sunday’s confidence was buoyed by one fruitful offensive inning, a grind-it-out effort by Cotton and a dominant bullpen. After the Yankees went ahead 2-0 in the third inning, the A’s bounced back with a four-spot in the bottom half.
Chad Pinder lined a double into the right-center-field gap that scored Josh Phegley and Matt Joyce, and Khris Davis crushed a two-run homer off the green backdrop in center.
“He’s always one swing away from putting a couple of runs up on the board, and that’s what he did for us today,” Melvin said of Davis, who registered his 15th multihit game, 16th go-ahead RBI and 18th home run of the season.
Cotton allowed the Yankees to trim their deficit to 4-3 on a Didi Gregorius homer barely inside the right-field foul pole in the fourth inning, but the right-hander retired nine of the final 10 hitters he faced. Having thrown 101 pitches through six innings, Cotton wanted to pitch the seventh, but Melvin told him he could face only one more hitter.
“Toward the end, I wanted to win so badly for the team,” said Cotton, who improved to 4-7. “No matter what, I just wanted to pitch as long as I could.”
Lefty Daniel Coulombe got the last two outs in the seventh, Ryan Madson zipped through the eighth, and Sean Doolittle recorded the save for the second straight day. X-rays on the non-throwing shoulder of closer Santiago Casilla, who was drilled by a foul ball Saturday, were negative, but Melvin said he wasn’t available.
With one out in the ninth, Gregorius reached on Pinder’s errant throw from shortstop and advanced to second as the ball went into the Yankees’ dugout. It was the A’s leagueleading 65th error, but Doolittle closed the door by striking out Chase Headley and getting Chris Carter to pop out to first.
“This feels really good,” Doolittle said. “To put four games together against a team that is that good, one of the best teams in the American League, is really big for us.”