Yankees lose to the Athletics

The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics by the score of 4-3 on Saturday afternoon. A.J. Burnett pitched pretty well but not good enough. He made a couple of mistakes and that is what cost him the game. The Yankees offense a day after scoring 17 struggled to do anything. They scored one late run and had the tying run at third in the ninth but left that runner stranded. Nick Swisher had a monster homerun in the game.
Burnett pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up six hits and three runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Cory Wade pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit, Boone Logan pitched two innings giving up two hits and a run with a strikeout and Dave Robertson pitched an inning giving up a hit and two walks. He did strike out a batter. Burnett took the loss and saw his record fall to 8-8 and his ERA is at 4.21. Burnett has lost four straight games.

Brett Gardner had a walk, Derek Jeter had three hits and a walk and Curtis Granderson had a walk. Mark Teixiera had a hit and an RBI, Robinson Cano had two hits and Swisher had a hit, RBI and two walks. Russell Martin had two hits and an RBI and Eduardo Nunez had two walks. Brandon Laird in his first start in the major leagues was 0-3, he left the bases loaded in one at-bat. Cano and Jeter had doubles and Swisher had a homerun. The Yankees were 2-11 with runners in scoring position and they left 11 men on base. Jeter and Gardner each had a stolen base and Granderson was caught stealing. Burnett did pick off a runner at first base.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a Martin RBI single. The Athletics took a 2-1 lead in the third inning on a two run homerun by Josh Willingham. In the sixth inning Jemile Weeks had an RBI single to make it 3-1 Athletics. In the bottom of the sixth inning Swisher hit a mammoth solo homerun to cut the lead to 3-2. I think it was the longest homerun hit at the New Stadium, it hit the façade of the upper deck. In the seventh inning Hideki Matsui hit a solo homerun off of his former team. The Yankees trailing 4-2 in the ninth inning rallied but they fell just short. Gardner walked, Jeter singled. Granderson struck out and Gardner and Jeter stole second and third. The Yankees had second and third one out and Teixeira hit a sacrifice fly making it 4-3 and putting a runner on third with two outs. Cano made the final out stranding the tying run at third base.

The Athletics snapped the Yankees 11 game winning streak against them. The three game series is even at one game each now. The rubber game will be on Sunday afternoon with Bartolo Colon facing off against Gio Gonzalez. The Yankees record dropped to 58-40, they remain in second place in the AL east but first in the wild card chase. Burnett said “I can only control what I can control out there.” I can’t control the offense, the hitting, the defense, what happens after I lose the ball that’s all out of my hands. I just try to keep my team in the best I can.” Burnett said “This team never quits so you have to be ready for anything.” Girardi said that he felt Burnett threw the ball well and Swisher gave credit to Rich Harden the A’s starter.