REVVED UP!
“A guy that just has professional at-bats,” Gardner said.
DJ LeMahieu hit a gameending homer in a 4-3, 11-inning victory over Oakland on Saturday. New York has won six of seven and salvaged a series win against the A’s. The Yankees have won eight straight rubber matches and improved to 90-48, becoming the first team this year to reach 90 victories.
A’s left-hander Sean Manaea pitched one-hit ball over five innings in his first start since shoulder surgery last September, and Oakland led 4-0 after 7 ½ innings.
The Yankees loaded the bases in the eighth, got a sacrifice fly from Gleyber Torres and a tworun single by Didi Gregorius to make it 4-3 before Hendriks got the final two outs. New York hasn’t been blanked in 220 games, the second longest streak since at least 1900 behind the Babe Ruth-led Yankees spanning 1931-33.
Sheldon Neuse — pronounced “noisy” — lined a tiebreaking, two-run double for his first major league hit in the seventh for Oakland, and Matt Olson made a stellar defensive play at first base before hitting his 28th homer.
“The only thing I could think of is I, ‘Wow, I just put one in play and scored a couple runs and now I’m standing on second at Yankee Stadium,’” Neuse said. “Just took a deep breath, took it all in.”
Yankees left-hander J.A. Happ countered Manaea with six scoreless innings of one-hit ball, walking four and striking out five. Adam Ottavino (6-4) pitched a scoreless inning to win.
Oakland trails Cleveland by a half-game for the second AL wild card and is a full game behind Tampa Bay for the first spot.
Manaea walked three and struck out five with 82 pitches in a stellar return.
“That’s all we were looking to get from him and boy he’s got to feel good about that,” manager Bob Melvin said.
The 27-year-old walked three in the fifth inning but left the bases loaded when Olson dived to stop Mike Tauchman’s grounder and threw from his back to Manaea at the bag.
Olson, last year’s AL Gold Glove Award winner at first, also made an overthe-shoulder, basket catch on the warning track on Gary Sánchez’s pop foul in the eighth.