The combination of poor offense and defense put the Yankees behind the eight ball as they fell to the Athletics, 7-0, on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
New York mustered just three hits and has now only scored three runs across the first two games of the series. The A's entered play with the second-worst ERA in all of baseball (5.42) with the second-highest batting average against (.267).
With the series tied, the Yankees (47-35) will lean on the returning Marcus Stroman to avoid the series loss.
Here are the takeaways…
-After pitching seven no-hit innings in his last start, Clarke Schmidt picked up where he left off, getting the first three batters in order and pushing his scoreless innings streak to 26.1, the longest single-season scoreless streak by a Yankees starter in the Expansion Era (1961).
He would extend that streak to 28.2 innings, the most by a Yankee since Don Larson's 29 straight in 1958, but Brent Rooker put an end to the feat with his solo shot in the fourth to give the A's a 1-0 lead. Schmidt lost his command in the sixth, walking the first two batters on eight pitches. After a mound visit, Schmidt bounced back to strike out Rooker, but Nick Kurtz deposited a 1-2 cutter over the right field wall to give the Athletics a 4-0 lead.
Schmidt would finish the frame to give the Yanks six solid innings. He threw 85 pitches (55 strikes), allowing four runs on four hits and two walks while striking out seven batters.
-On the offensive side, the Yankees' offense just couldn't get the big hit against former Yankee prospect JP Sears. Sears allowed just one hit through the first five innings, but the Yankees made him work, walking three times and setting up Aaron Judge for a big inning with runners on first and second and two outs. However, Judge flew out to right field to end the Yankee threat.
After Cody Bellinger's first-inning single, the Yankees wouldn't get another hit until Paul Goldschmidt led off the sixth with a single of his own. Judge would have another chance to drive in runs, and just missed a two-run shot, launching a drive to the deepest part of Yankee Stadium for an out. The ball left his bat at 107 mph and had an xBA of .750 and went 406 feet, but it wasn't enough. It would have been a home run in 20 parks.
Judge finished 0-for-3 with a walk. His average has dipped to .354.
The offense as a whole had three hits, five walks, struck out seven times and grounded into two double plays. They were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left five runners on base.
-With the score still 4-0 in the eighth, the game got away from the Yanks in the eighth. After Alan Winans walked the first two batters, Max Muncy laid down a bunt that popped in the air in front of homeplate but none of the Yankees played it aggressively and it dropped between Austin Wells and Winans. Worse than that, Wells picked it up — when it potentially could have rolled foul — and tried to throw to first for the force but almost threw it into the outfield.
A sac fly and a strikeout later, Austin Wynns hit a single to score another run. Bellinger threw to third to cut the runner down there but it skipped past Jazz Chisholm Jr. and no one backed him up, so another run scored as the Athletics' lead ballooned to 7-0.
Game MVP: Nick Kurtz
Kurtz's blast put the game away even before the defensive mishaps in the eighth inning.
What's next
The Yankees and A's complete their series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m.
Marcus Stroman (0-1, 11.57 ERA) retunrs from the IL and will be opposed by former Yankee, Luis Severino (2-8, 4.83 ERA).
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