A’s gain ground on Yanks in wild-card chase
OAKLAND, CALIF. Mark Canha homered and Matt Chapman hit an RBI double to back Trevor Cahill, leading the Oakland Athletics past the New York Yankees 6-3 on Monday in a matchup between two teams in the AL wild-card race.
The A’s jumped on CC Sabathia early and pulled within 31/2 games of New York for the first wild card. They also moved six games up on the Seattle Mariners, who are slowly but surely playing themselves out of the playoff chase.
The Yankees now trail the firstplace Boston Red Sox by 81/2 games in the AL East after the Red Sox were 8-2 winners over the Atlanta Braves on Monday.
Cahill (6-3) defeated the Yankees for the first time in seven career appearances, the only AL team he’d never beaten. The righthander 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 two-out 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 one-out 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.
UP NEXT
J.A. Happ (15-6, 4.00 ERA) starts Tuesday night and is 5-0 with a 3.38 ERA over six starts since joining New York from the Blue Jays before the trade deadline. Oakland had yet to name a starter.