NEW YORK — After a hotly contested series against Tampa Bay, one wouldn’t have blamed the Yankees for viewing a three-game series against the A’s as some kind of reprieve.
After losing a series in which all three meetings were decided by one run and before hosting a four-game series against the same major league-leading Rays (29-8) this weekend, the Yanks met to an Oakland team that has opened the season with the worst record in the Majors (8-29).
The Bronx Bombers quickly got back into the win column in Monday’s opener and then scored runs in double figures for the third time this year on Tuesday night, topping the A’s en route to a 10-5 win at Yankee Stadium that clinched the series win.
The Yankees batted in a five-run third inning, with Aaron Judge driving in the first run in his return from the disabled list. The captain reached on a fielder’s choice that was too good for A’s third baseman Jace Peterson to handle, allowing José Treviño to cross home plate. Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres and Harrison Bader kept the line moving with back-to-back RBI singles, before Jake Bauers closed out the big inning with a sacrifice fly.
Torres added his second home run in as many nights with a two-run home run in the fifth and Bauers hit his own two-run home run in the seventh to counter the A’s one-man wrecking crew second baseman. , Jordan Diaz; the 22-year-old hit a three-homer game, accounting for all but one of Oakland’s runs on the night.
“It feels good to have offensive production like that and bounce back after a tough last drive,” Rizzo said, “and just get back to playing our baseball.”
The third inning cushion proved to be the most beneficial for the Yankees starter clarke schmidt, who earned his first win of the season with the longest start of his young career. The right-hander pitched six two-run innings with seven strikeouts in a 93-pitch start.
“It’s huge,” Schmidt said. “Any time you get a lead like that, you can, not take a step back, but you can pitch a little bit differently. You still want to be on the attack all the time when you’re out there, but I think the most important thing is that when you have that advantage, there’s a little more room for error.
“So it was nice to be able to shoot the lead, and obviously the offense did a great job tonight with 10 points. Impressive performance from them.”
Thrust into a starting role with three-fifths of the Yankees’ rotation (Carlos Rodón, Luis Severino and Frankie Montas) beginning the year on the disabled list, Schmidt has answered the call with aplomb, but he hasn’t always had the results to show for it.
He had come close to crossing the six-inning threshold twice before, but on April 23 against the Blue Jays, the hook came after he gave up back-to-back home runs with two outs in the top of the sixth and then in his next start. against the Rangers, he had hit 97 pitches in five innings.
So when Schmidt returned to the mound for the sixth on Tuesday, he knew he needed to make quick work of the A’s. Yankees manager Aaron Boone had already told him.
After securing a groundout on the first pitch, Schmidt allowed a single to Shea Langeliers that could have spelled the end of his night. But Boone let him continue, and he rallied by inducing an inning-ending double play by Tony Kemp, once again on the first pitch.
“It is very satisfying; I think there was a huge sigh of relief at the end,” Schmidt said. “I really wanted to get back out there for the sixth, and I knew I had about 10 pitches that he told me, so after I put the single down, I just kept looking at it. I was hoping he wasn’t going to pull me. So it was nice to be able to get the double play there and get out of the inning.”
The Yankees know that same satisfaction, having enjoyed an offensive resurgence in the midst of the series win. They’ll go into Wednesday’s final with a chance to claim their first sweep of the season, and face the Rays again with some momentum in their favor.
“Yeah, it’s definitely nice,” Boone said. “(We have) the opportunity to have a very good series tomorrow.”
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