A’s gain ground on Yanks in wild-card race
Begin pivotal series by roughing up Sabathia
Oakland, Calif. — Trevor Cahill recalls all his bad outings against the Yankees.
He sure picked a perfect moment to finally beat them — at last, in his 10th major league season, and in a meaningful September meeting.
Mark Canha homered and Matt Chapman hit an RBI double to back Cahill, leading the Oakland Athletics past New York 6-3 on Monday in a matchup between teams in the AL wild-card race.
The A's jumped on CC Sabathia early and pulled within 3.5 games of New York for the first wild card. Oakland remained 2.5 games back of World Series champion Houston in the AL West.
Cahill (6-3) defeated the Yankees for the first time in seven career appearances, the only AL team he'd never beaten.
"I had some extra Adrenalin," Cahill said. "They were tough. A lot of bad outings against those guys. I was able to finally get that win against them. We're trying to catch the Astros and if that doesn't work we want a playoff game here. We just want wins."
The right-hander improved to 5-0 with a 1.09 ERA in nine home starts, striking out three to leave him one shy of 1,000 for his career. Cahill allowed four hits and three runs — two earned — in five innings.
Lou Trivino relieved Cahill and struck out the side in the sixth. Jeurys Familia issued consecutive twoout walks in the eighth but got out of it unscathed before Blake Treinen finished for his 36th save.
Luke Voit hit a two-run homer for New York, which welcomed back manager Aaron Boone to the bench after he served a one-game suspension Sunday.
Sabathia (7-6) retired Marcus
Semien on a fly ball before surrendering four straight singles and a bases-loaded walk to Matt Olson as the A's went ahead 3-1.
New York answered right back on Voit's seventh home run that came on a 3-2 pitch.
The lefty, pitching back home in the Bay Area, was done after Semien's oneout double in the fourth for his second-shortest outing of 2018. With just one victory in his past nine starts, Sabathia allowed four earned runs and seven hits with four strikeouts and two walks.
Oakland has won six of the last eight meetings with the Yankees, whose final 25 batters managed just one hit — Brett Gardner's second-inning double.
"I'm not too concerned about where we're at in the standings in relation to them or in relation to Boston," Gardner said. "I'm just concerned about us playing better. We've got a really, really good team, a team that can do a lot of damage and be dangerous deep into the postseason, but we've got to play better if we're going to get there. It's up to us to figure out a way to do that." Back in the bay New Yankees right fielder Andrew McCutchen received warm applause after his lineup introduction. He arrived in the Bronx on Friday, played for his new club all weekend then returned right back to the Bay Area where he'd been with the Giants.
McCutchen led off the game with a single, stole second, reached third on catcher Jonathan Lucroy's error and scored the game's first run. Trainer's room Yankees: SS Didi Gregorius, sidelined with a bruised left heel he hurt Aug. 19 in a collision with Toronto's Kendrys Morales beating out an infield single, is set to run the bases today and Boone said he is "very close to a return." ... New York outrighted OF Shane Robinson and LHP Ryan Bollinger to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Athletics: LHP Brett Anderson (strained pitching forearm) is slated to throw off a mound Wednesday . ... The A's acquired RHP Aaron Brooks from the Brewers for cash and designated LHP Danny Coulombe for assignment. Up next J.A. Happ (15-6, 4.00 ERA) starts tonight and is 5-0 with a 3.38 ERA over six starts since joining New York from the Blue Jays. Oakland will start reliever Liam Hendriks for one inning again.