The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sabathia exits early, Yankees’ bullpen falters in loss to A’s
NEW YORK — Jurickson Profar delivered two tiebreaking hits to atone for his role in the doublereversal of a double play, and the Oakland Athletics beat the New York Yankees 82 Friday night.
Profar connected in the second for a 10 lead and added a tworun double in the sixth for a 42 edge. That made up for his flawed footwork as the pivot on a blown double play in the fourth that led to a Yankees run.
Oakland pulled within a halfgame of Cleveland for the top AL wild card, and held its onegame edge over Tampa Bay for the second. The A’s swept a threegame series against the AL Eastleading Yankees in Oakland last week.
New York ended a fourgame winning streak hours after placing Gio Urshela on the 10day injured list, giving the club a record 29 players on the IL this season.
CC Sabathia was pulled after three innings with a recurrence of his ongoing knee issues, and Tommy Kahnle (31) allowed three runs in the sixth.
Oakland lefthander Brett Anderson (119) pitched tworun ball over six innings. He allowed six hits, struck out one and induced 14 groundouts.
New York went ahead 21 after the unusual replay challenge. Austin Romine hit into an apparent 643 double play, but replays showed Profar pulled his foot off the bag before catching a feed from shortstop Marcus Semien. Profar was flipped by a hard, clean slide from Brett Gardner, and his throw was shown to be a hair late to first.
The Yankees took the lead on Mike Tauchman’s groundball double play the next atbat.
Kahnle blew that advantage two innings later. Seth Brown delivered a pinchhit, RBI double to tie it before Profar’s tworun knock.
Brown added two RBI singles after that while Oakland pulled away. Mark Canha had an RBI triple off Cory Gearrin in the seventh, and Semien hit his 25th homer leading off the ninth.
Profar’s homer off Sabathia was his 18th of the season and second in two games.
Struggling former closer Blake Treinen pitched a 123 ninth for Oakland. He struck out two, and Profar made a diving stop and twohop throw on Romine’s grounder to end it.
BRONX BEAT
Urshela’s IL stint pushed New York past the 2016 Dodgers, who set a record with 28 players on the thendisabled list.
“It’s been one of the story lines of our season,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Losing guys and getting guys back.”
Sabathia made his third start since an IL stint
caused by right knee pain, and his balky landing leg troubled him again. He lacked his usual pinpoint command, and he was pulled after three innings of onerun ball. He threw 48 pitches. New York said no tests were planned.
Slugging first baseman Luke Voit was activated. He’d been out since July 30 with a sports hernia. He drilled hard singles in his first two atbats.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Athletics: 3B Matt Chapman returned to the lineup after being held out Thursday, a day after taking a pitch off his helmet.
Yankees: CF Aaron Hicks (right flexor strain) was expected to meet with a doctor prior to the game. … RHP Dellin Betances (right shoulder impingement) will throw a bullpen at the team’s complex in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, then throw his next session in New York on Monday to avoid the approaching hurricane. … LHP Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery) pitched 1 2⁄3 innings with TripleA Scranton/WilkesBarre, allowing a run and striking out three.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP Domingo German (173, 4.03) has won eight of his past 10 starts and is closing in on a mostunexpected 20win season. His only loss in that stretch came at Oakland on Aug. 20, when he allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings. He’ll start Saturday against A’s RHP Homer Bailey (128, 5.04), who handed German one of his three defeats while with Kansas City in April.