The New York Yankees lose rubber game to the Oakland Athletics

The New York Yankees were defeated by the score of 5-4 on Sunday afternoon by the Oakland Athletics. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Andy Pettitte started and struggled once again for his second start in a row. He didn’t get hit hard in this game but his command was not good at all. The Yankees offense fought back but fell just short in the ninth. 
Pettitte pitched five innings giving up four hits and four runs with three of them being earned. He walked four and struck out two. Preston Claiborne made his major league debut pitching two perfect innings, Boone Logan took the loss pitching an inning giving up three hits and a run with a strikeout and Shawn Kelley pitched a perfect inning with a couple of strikeouts.

Brett Gardner had two hits, Robinson Cano had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk and Vernon Wells had a hit. Travis Hafner had a hit and drew two walks, Ichiro Suzuki had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk and Lyle Overbay had a hit and two RBI. Gardner and Suzuki each hit a double and the Yankees were 3-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Wells had a stolen base and Cano committed an error.

Dan Straily pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up four hits and three runs with three walks and four strikeouts. Jerry Blevins pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run with a strikeout, Sean Doolittle won his second game of the season pitching a perfect inning and Ryan Cook gave up two hits and no runs in an inning of work. He struck out one batter and Grant Balfour saved his fifth game of the season pitching an inning and giving up a hit and a walk with two strikeouts.

Adam Rosales had a hit, Derek Norris drew a walk and Jed Lowrie had two walks. Yoenis Cespedes had a hit and two RBI, Josh Donaldson had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk. Nate Freiman had a hit, Luke Montz had two hits and an RBI and Josh Reddick had a hit. Montz and Reddick each hit a double, Montz, Cespedes and Donaldson each hit a homerun and the A’s were 0-9 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Cespedes had an outfield assist.

In the third Cespedes grounded into a force out to give the A’s a 1-0 lead. Cano hit an RBI single in the third to tie the game at one. Montz hit a solo homerun in the fourth to give the A’s a 2-1 lead and Cespedes hit a two run homerun in the fifth to give the A’s a 4-1 lead. The Yankees rallied for three runs in the sixth to tie the game at four. Ichiro hit an RBI double and Overbay hit a two run single. In the eighth Donaldson hit a solo homerun to break the tie and give the A’s a 5-4 lead which they would hold onto and win the game.

The Yankees lost two out of three in this series but finished their long 10 game homestand with a 7-3 record and one game out of first place in the AL East. They trail the Red Sox by one game in the loss column. The Yankees will have the day off on Monday and then head to Colorado to begin a three game series on Monday. The Yankees record dropped to 18-12 and the A’s record dropped to 18-14.