“We certainly weren’t happy with the way we were playing, but there’s a lot of guys in here that have done this for a long time and understand that you’re going to have stretches throughout the season where you’re going to play 8-16 ball”, Yankees third baseman Chase Headley said.
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“We needed to play good baseball on this road trip and we’ve done that”, McCann said. “Now we’re hitting better and we’re playing better all around”.
John Axford allowed a pair of inherited runners to score on Hahn’s record before Sean Doolittle gave up a run of his own in the seventh, wasting solid offensive performances from Stephen Vogt and Billy Burns.
So it goes for the A’s, who are now in the midst of their fourth losing streak this season of at least four games and have just added their 13th player to the disabled list.
In the top of the third inning, Jacoby Ellsbury took the lead for the Yankees when he hit a solo home run to right center field to put them ahead 2-1; it was Ellsbury’s second home run of the season.
Vogt’s two-out, two-run double in the fifth inning had given Oakland a 3-2 lead. For Teixeira, the hit – a ground ball into the shift in short right field that he beat out – snapped an 0-for-19 skid and marked first RBI since May 1, ending a 17-game drought.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman came on to lock down the game and preserve the 5-4 win for the Yankees, thus completing the four-game sweep of the A’s in Oakland.
May 22, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira (25) hits an RBI single against the Oakland Athletics during the sixth inning at the Oakland Coliseum.
The A’s let a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity slip away in the third when Danny Valencia struck out and Davis grounded out.
Hahn (1-2) took the loss despite the fact he walked off the mound with a lead. He finishes the day with three earned runs, six hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. Right-handed reliever Daniel Coulombe pitched the eighth after getting recalled from Triple-A Nashville. He allowed a single to Billy Burns with one out, and then did a awful job of trying to hold him on, as Burns then stole both second and third.
NY starter Masahiro Tanaka (2-0) allowed one run on five hits and had four strikeouts for his first victory since April 12.
McCann led off the second with his sixth homer of the season and Ellsbury homered with two outs in the third for a 2-1 lead.
Beltran, subbing at DH for injured Alex Rodriguez, is hitting.353 with 15 RBIs over his last 14 games. A’s manager Bob Melvin said no decision has been made on who will replace RHP Sonny Gray (strained trapezius) in the starting rotation. Betances worked a scoreless seventh inning and struck out two. With Gray and RF Josh Reddick (broken thumb) having been added during the Yankees series, the A’s now have a major-league-high 13 players on the disabled list.
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When the A’s swept the Yankees in NY in April, baseball seemed so easy. It’s their most since 1979. They’re also 7-2 in Hahn’s last nine starts overall and have won five of his last seven outings following a quality start in his last appearance.
