The Yankees won their second straight against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday in a 7-3 victory after dropping the first of a four-game series.
Here are the takeaways…
-Just as they did in Tuesday’s game, the Bombers got off to a quick start this time thanks to the bat of Aaron Judge. Given a second shot of life on a 1-2 count after Oakland starter Joe Boyle was called for a balk on a pitch that would’ve struck out Judge, the outfielder sent the right-hander’s next offering over the seats in right field for a two-run jack to put the Yankees up 2-0 in the first inning.
The home run was Judge’s fourth of the year and first since April 14. He’s still batting just .191 on the season, but he finished the night going 2-for-5 (his first multi-hit game since April 13) and his opposite-field blast could be a sign that he’s starting to break out of his early-season funk.
-For the second game in a row, Anthony Rizzo blasted a home run to right field. The long ball extended New York’s lead to 5-0 in the fifth. Entering Tuesday’s game, the first baseman had just one dinger on the season and he’s now tripled that total. The lefty went 2-for-4 and upped his batting average to .242 as he looks to get his season back on track.
-Just about the only Yankee that hasn’t struggled offensively at any point so far this season has been new addition Juan Soto. That trend continued on Wednesday as the 25-year-old hit another home run (his sixth this year), drove in two runs, scored two runs and walked twice near the top of the lineup.
Soto’s walk in the first in front of Judge helped New York get out to an early lead while his solo shot in the sixth came in response to the Athletics getting back in the game and scoring three runs of their own a half-inning before. He also had a sac fly in the fourth and finished 1-for-3.
-RHP Clarke Schmidt took the ball for New York and had no problem setting down the Oakland lineup for much of the night. In fact, through five innings, Schmidt had allowed just two hits and two walks while keeping the Athletics scoreless.
Things went south in the sixth after Ryan Noda led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch. Tyler Nevin followed with a double to put runners on second and third with nobody out and after striking out JJ Bleday and possibly finding a way out of the inning with minimal damage, Brent Rooker hit the first pitch he saw 418 feet for a three-run bomb that got the A’s right back in the game.
Schmidt’s night was done after the home run as the right-hander went 5.1 innings, giving up three earned runs on four hits, two walks while striking out six for his second win.
–Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells each had two hits. Volpe had a defense-aided RBI triple and scored a run while Wells had two singles, and a walk and scored a run in the nine hole.
Game MVP: Aaron Judge
His home run in the first inning gave his team some juice and that energy carried into the entire game as the offense scored seven runs on 11 hits.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees finish out their four-game series against the Athletics on Thursday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
LHP Nestor Cortes (1-1, 3.41 ERA) looks to secure a series win for New York, opposed by LHP Alex Wood (0-2, 7.89 ERA).
