Rally pushes aside frustrations
The Yankees made their inaugural 2015 visit to the Coliseum on Thursday night, with at least one predictable result. The crowd of 21,795 dutifully and persistently booed every time Alex Rodriguez strolled to the plate.
Here’s the unexpected part: The A’s and Yankees engaged in a close game, and the home team won.
The A’s showed up with a 2- 15 record in onerun games, including 0- 10 at home. But they displayed some mettle in wiping out a three- run
deficit and surging to a 5- 4 victory.
“We haven’t won many games like that this year,” starting pitcher Kendall Graveman said. “For us to battle back like that was great.”
Oakland, after earlier swatting two homers against starter CC Sabathia, delivered a series of jabs during its decisive seventhinning rally. Single. Walk. Single. And then Ben Zobrist coaxed a bases- loaded walk off reliever David Carpenter.
Billy Butler followed with a towering sacrifice fly to deep center field, stretching the A’s lead to 5- 3. That was enough for the bullpen ( Fernando Abad, Evan Scribner and Tyler Clippard), which belied its seasonlong troubles and retired the first nine batters it faced.
Clippard then stumbled, walking pinch- hitter Garrett Jones with two outs in the ninth. Brett Gardner smoked an RBI double to left- center, slicing New York’s deficit to 5- 4, but center fielder Billy Burns tracked down Chase Headley’s long flyball to end the game.
Burns played a key role in the game, with two hits and two runs. That included a line- drive home run, his second homer in five games. Burns had only two homers in 406 minor- league games.
“I guess it’s a surprise, because it happened so recently from the left side,” he said, referring to Sunday’s shot against Tampa Bay. “I have a little more power from the right side.”
Burns, filling an important role with Coco Crisp sidelined, is hitting .302 for the season.
The A’s still trailed 3- 1, but they tied the game in the sixth. Zobrist doubled down the leftfield line, moved to third on Butler’s lineout to right and stayed there when Stephen Vogt struck out.
Vogt’s whiff sent a familiar, disheartening vibe throughout the Coliseum. Brett Lawrie quickly changed the vibe, hitting a no- doubt- about- it, tworun homer to left field. It was Lawrie’s third homer of the season, and the 10th surrendered by Sabathia.
Graveman fell behind on Brian McCann’s solo homer in the second. That ended a streak of 32 innings in which Oakland starters had not allowed an earned run, the longest such stretch by an A’s team since at least 1914.
The Yankees pushed their lead to 2- 0 with the help of technology not exactly available in 1914. Rodriguez was ruled out when he tried to score from second on McCann’s single to center; replays showed Rodriguez grazed the plate with his fingertips, and the call was reversed.
That ultimately didn’t matter, because the A’s came to life on offense and their bullpen clamped down.
“Our pitchers really stood their ground in the last few innings,” Burns said.
“We haven’t won many games like that this year. For us to battle back like that was great.”
Kendall Graveman, A’s pitcher