The New York Yankees brought their road struggles with them on their trek up to the Bay Area after a dismal effort against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the early portion of this west coast road trip. The first affair was pleasant as Ivan Nova cruised through six innings of work and Carlos Beltran and Aaron Hicks played vital roles in putting runs on the board against the hot Oakland A’s who had just swept their AL West rivals from Arlington, the Texas Rangers.
Friday night saw CC Sabathia take the hill for the Bombers. History told us prior to his first pitch that Sabathia and his homeland were never a perfect fit. In 15 starts at the Oakland Coliseum in his career, CC amassed a 5.44 ERA in 92.2 innings pitched with 64 strikeouts to 37 walks, and a WHIP of a whopping 1.478.
Based on the events of Friday night, it’s easy to see that Sabathia deviated from the norm. Over six innings of work, Sabathia omitted just one run, struck out eight, issued one walk and allowed three hits on 98 pitches as the he helped lead the Yankees to an 8-3 victory over the A’s to make it three in a row and force at least a split of this four-game set by the bay.
Sabathia buzzed his ERA down to 3.41 with the strong six-inning performance and is looking like a very solid hurler in the back of the rotation. He allowed not a single extra-base hit throughout his performance as the lone one for the Athletics came against reliever Kirby Yates in the form of a Coco Crisp double that drove in the A’s second run. The first came after a Matt McBride single that scored Billy Butler. After that, it was smooth sailing for CC as the veteran southpaw appears to have regained his form over his last few starts.
The Play: Ronald Torreyes socks a triple (+.231)
The Bombers were aided in a big way from an unlikely source Friday night. Ronald Torreyes provided the biggest hit and biggest moment of the game for the Yankees that turned the tide majorly in their favor, as win probability would have it. Torreyes hit a two-run triple to left field in the fourth inning that plated Aaron Hicks and Didi Gregorius.
Torreyes would later get another base hit to finish a stout 2-for-4 night at the dish.
Top Performers
Yankees: Carlos Beltran (3-5, 2B, 3 RBI)
Athletics: Coco Crisp (1-4,2B, RBI)
Notes
– Starlin Castro’s woes away from Yankee Stadium on this current road trip continued as the Yankees’ second baseman went 0-for-5 to drop his average down to .266. It’s been a rough time for Castro on this road trip and the month of May as he appears to be regressing slightly after his scorching April. A reason for optimism might be that this is merely the norm for Castro as he typically sees his production dip in May. The good news is that he will typically rise from stewing eventually.
– Meanwhile, Didi Gregorius appears to be following the script of his career as his play continues to improve. Gregorius hit 3-for-5 with two runs scored in the eight hole and provided many an opportunity for Ronald Torreyes to to drive him in. Didi’s dismal April may soon become a thing of the past if his play continues to be on the upswing. As we have seen from him in his career, that is likely to happen.
– With Betances, Miller and Chapman unavailable the Yankees turned to Kirby Yates and Chasen Shreve to shut down the door. That they did. Though they each allowed a run, the much-needed cushion that the offense gave them allowed for them to keep cool and remain relatively unscathed in the three innings they would work. Yates struck out a batter in the two innings of work he had and allowed just two hits, while Chasen Shreve allowed merely one hit and the run he allowed was omitted on a sacrifice groundout.
– Carlos Beltran continued his great road trip with a three-double night. Beltran’s averaged propped itself up to .262 and what’s more, while his OBP is hovering around .290, his slugging percentage propelled itself up to .517 on the season, which his a team-high to this point of the year. After a night that included a double and a home run, Beltran continued to succeed in netting extra-base hits in the cavernous Oakland Coliseum on Friday night.
Up Next
The Yankees look for a series win on Saturday against the A’s at the Coliseum at 4:05 p.m. ET. Masahiro Tanaka (1-0, 3.51 ERA), the Yankees’ ace in 2016, will stand opposite Sean Manea (1-1, 7.91 ERA).
Photo Credit: Kelley L Cox / USA TODAY Sports