A’s Beat Down Yankees, Even Series Behind 7-0 Win

Everything went right for the Green & Gold today

The Athletics won the middle game of their weekend series against the New York Yankees on Saturday morning, beating down the Bronx Bombers by a 7-0 final to even the series and setting up a rubber match for tomorrow morning’s finale.

Sears solid against former team

Taking to the hill today was left-hander JP Sears. Looking to get his season back on track, Sears looked like a man on a mission right out of the gate. Over the first five frames he issued a couple hits and walks here and there but escaped every jam, inducing a lot of fly ball outs in a dangerous stadium for balls hit in the air. He was in utter control and looked like he’d fixed every single problem going wrong for him all in one start.

A’s take first lead of the day

The Yankees meanwhile sent emerging ace Clarke Schmidt to take on the Athletics on this beautiful Saturday morning. Bringing an impressive 2.84 ERA into today’s game, Schmidt was matching Sears for the first three innings, allowing just one single to Tyler Soderstrom the first time through the Athletics’ order.

The A’s finally tagged him for the first run of the game courtesy of the second batter in the fourth. Aspiring All-Star Brent Rooker took a hanging breaking ball and deposited it into the left field stands for his 17th homer of the season to give the A’s a lead they wouldn’t let go of today:

It’ll be hard to leave him off the All-Star roster if he reaches the 20-homer threshold. Can he get there by then? He has 13 games after today before the break.

Critical late insurance for A’s

Still clinging to a slim 1-0 lead in the sixth and looking for some extra cushion, the Athletics’ #1 and 2 hitters Lawrence Butler and Jacob Wilson worked back-to-back walks against Schmidt to lead off the frame, the only two free passes he would issue against the A’s today. After a Rooker strikeout, rookie Nick Kurtz strode to the plate and pulled the fourth pitch he saw from Clarke into the short porch in right, blasting a three-run homer to open this game up for the A’s:

That’s big fly #12 for Kurtz, and his sixth since his return from the IL. At this rate 30 home runs shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for the rookie, who as you may recall began the year in Triple-A.

Sears wraps up his day, Perkins takes over

Entering the inning at just 77 pitches, Mark Kotsay elected to let Sears keep it going. A leadoff single wasn’t a great way to start the sixth inning, even with an extended lead. The lefty came back to collect two more outs before finally wrapping up his day with one out left in the frame, making way for rookie Jack Perkins to take over to face right-handed slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

–JP Sears: 5 ²⁄₃ IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 90 pitches

Now that’s the Sears that we saw at the start of the season. The hits allowed was a season-low for the lefty as he tamed a dangerous and powerful Yankees lineup that doesn’t lack for hitters up and down the lineup. He’ll hope to take whatever momentum he got from today into his next start, currently lined up to be the series opener next Friday against the San Francisco Giants.

Perkins did his job and finished off the frame by getting Stanton to line out to center fielder Denzel Clarke on his second pitch. He also pitched a scoreless seventh as well with a walk wiped out by a double play.

A’s bust it open

Not happy with a four-run lead in Yankee Stadium, the offense kept up the pressure against New York’s bullpen. Now in the eighth, a sac fly from Tyler Soderstrom brought in the Athletics’ fifth run of the day, and that was followed by an Austin Wynns RBI single that had a bit of help from some bad Yankees defense:

That made this a 7-0 game and all but ended this one. Perkins had a scoreless eighth inning and ended up going the rest of the way, finishing this game off for the Athletics and evening this series up one apiece.

As well-rounded of a win as the team has had in a while. The pitching was terrific to bottom as JP Sears showed flashes of his early-season form and rookie Jack Perkins looked comfortable under the bright lights of New York. The offense got huge hits from Brent Rooker and Nick Kurtz, and they kept up the pressure late to step on the Yankees’ neck and not let them even attempt to mount a comeback.

They’ve evened up the series and can win it tomorrow morning in the series finale. Former Yankee Luis Severino will try to get revenge for his start earlier this season against his former teammates when he got rocked for eight runs. The Yankees will counter their former starter with right-handed veteran Marcus Stroman, who will be returning from the injured list to make his first appearance since April 11th. He’s gotten hit hard during his rehab stint but evidently New York is comfortable sending him out there to face the A’s. That should be plenty of motivation for the guys to prove them wrong and wrap up the series with a win tomorrow.