Power and pitching create shot at sweep
Ryon Healy had such a frustrating pregame session in the batting cage Saturday that he said he stewed around the clubhouse, fussing about his swing.
Apparently, Healy really knows how to focus his anger.
A couple hours later, the A’s designated hitter crushed two home runs on a pristine afternoon at the Coliseum, helping give Oakland a 5-2 victory over the Yankees and a shot at sweeping the AL East leaders, who also lead the league in run differential.
After dramatic, one-run wins in each of the first two games of the four-game series, the A’s won Saturday behind the grit of starting pitcher Jesse Hahn, the talent of the bullpen and the power of Healy.
“It’s a day-to-day grind,” Healy said. “There have been a lot of days this year when I’ve felt terrible in the cage. I just have to go out there, clear my mind and battle. I’m really emphasizing getting a good pitch to hit and putting my best swing on it. I’m trusting the process and just sort of going with the ebbs and flows of the season.”
Healy’s current stretch has to be categorized among the flows. He has three multi-homer efforts in the past 14 games, including Saturday, when he launched two off Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka.
The 25-year-old has 17 homers on the season and 30 in his first 139 career games. He scorched a liner into the leftcenter-field seats in the second inning to tie the game 2-2 and added a towering shot to the same section to put the A’s ahead 3-2 in the fourth.
Asked whether Healy’s surge has been “beyond the A’s wildest expectations,” manager Bob Melvin said: “If you asked me that last year, I would have said: ‘Yeah.’ But not after what we saw last year. He went through a considerable struggle at one point this year, and then he made the adjustment. That’s what the really good hitters do.”
Healy’s second homer ignited a three-run fourth inning. Matt Chapman, who went 2-for-4, scored on Adam Rosales’ twoout single, and Matt Joyce, who reached base in all five of his plate appearances, scored on Jed Lowrie’s infield single to give the A’s a 5-2 lead.
Hahn and four relievers made the lead stand up for the A’s, who have gone 26 consecutive series without a sweep, something that could change Sunday. Hahn was shaky early during his third start since returning from a triceps strain, needing 31 pitches to get out of trouble in the first inning and giving up three straight hits and two runs to the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup in the second.
But the right-hander didn’t allow a hit in his final three innings and moved to 3-4 on the season as the A’s bullpen sparkled in allowing only two baserunners over the game’s final four innings. Liam Hendricks struck out two of the three batters he faced in the sixth, Joe Smith breezed through the seventh, and Ryan Madson allowed just a jam-shot single in facing the heart of the Yankees’ order.
X-rays were negative on the non-throwing arm of closer Santiago Casilla, who was drilled by a foul ball in the dugout, but he still ceded the save opportunity to Sean Doolittle. The left-hander struck out the side in the ninth inning.
“It was awesome to see the way we pieced it together today and had each guy come in and feed off the guy’s performance before,” Doolittle said.
The A’s have been feeding off Healy for a while. He’s batting .375 with eight home runs and 15 RBIs in his past 14 games.
And, get this: He doesn’t think he’s even in a groove yet.
“I still think I’m just getting there,” he said. “I’m not satisfied with the consistency of it. There are things I’m not doing well enough on a game-to-game basis. Fortunately, I’m able to still compete.
“That’s the biggest thing. No matter how good or bad you feel, you’ve got to be able to go out there and give yourself an opportunity to help the team win.”