Yankees get to A’s Rodney in eighth inning on way to 5-1 win that evens series.
Just 2 hits aren’t enough against wild-card leaders
The “bullpenning” strategy worked just fine this time. The pitching wasn’t necessarily the problem, at least not until the usually reliable late-game relievers showed up.
In the latest version of their biggest series of the season, the A’s are 1-1 because of rare letdowns Tuesday night by the offense and relievers Jeurys Familia and Fernando Rodney.
The A’s had two hits and lost to the Yankees 5-1 before a modest crowd of 17,536 at the Colise-
um, so the series victor will be decided in Wednesday’s finale.
The A’s fell 3½ games behind first-place Houston in the American League West and 4½ back of the Yankees for the top wild-card spot.
“We’re not going to have it there for 162” games, A’s first baseman Matt Olson said. “If that were the case, there would be teams with 130 wins right now. Stuff happens. Sometimes it’s not your night. That was one of those for us.”
Stephen Piscotty crushed a second-inning home run, and Oakland’s only other hit was Matt Chapman’s seventh-inning single. Otherwise, the A’s — fifth in the majors in runs scored — did nothing against J.A. Happ and three relievers.
The Yankees tied the game in the seventh and put it away with four runs across the eighth and ninth. Familia and Rodney issued four walks, and two runs were charged to Rodney, who had yielded just one run in his first 12 A’s outings.
“It was more, we didn’t do enough offensively tonight,” manager Bob Melvin said. “No matter what we give up, even if it’s two runs, when you get two hits, you’re going to have a tough time winning.”
“No excuse,” Chapman said. “A really good pitcher kept us off balance, a guy we haven’t seen all season.”
As was the case Saturday against Seattle, reliever Liam Hendriks was the first-inning pitcher. But unlike Saturday, when he struggled in the second, he never threw a pitch past the first.
Daniel Mengden, who got up to throw in the bullpen several times Saturday, got up just once Tuesday. Then he pitched, beautifully. Mengden lasted 42⁄3 hitless innings before Gleyber Torres’ single in the sixth, the Yankees’ first hit of the night.
Lefty Ryan Buchter replaced Mengden to face Brett Gardner and promptly picked off Torres to end the inning. The Yankees had two other baserunners in the first six innings, courtesy of errors by Chapman and Jed Lowrie, and both were wiped out on double plays.
“I think it was a little easier for Daniel tonight because he knew exactly when he was coming in,” Melvin said. “We’re trying to straighten that out a little bit.”
Mengden agreed, calling it a “more concrete plan, a little easier to go with. But it doesn’t really matter when you come in. Making your pitches is all that matters.”
The pitches weren’t made in the final innings. Gardner opened the seventh with a single, and Familia replaced Buchter and gave up a single to Giancarlo Stanton and walked ex-Giant Andrew McCutchen to load the bases, then walked Aaron Hicks to force home Gardner with the tying run.
Familia struck out the next two batters and, at 29 pitches, was replaced by Rodney, who got out of the inning. But in the eighth, Rodney coughed up a tie-breaking homer to Luke Voit and walked two batters before Hicks singled home another run.
Adeiny Hechavarria homered off Emilio Pagan during a two-run ninth in which the A’s used their sixth, seventh and eighth pitchers. Saturday, they set an Oakland record for a nine-inning game by employing nine pitchers.