Brett Lawrie was enduring a miserable night at the plate, and the odds didn’t seem stacked in his favor facing tough Yankees reliever Dellin Betances.
Then Betances hung a curve in the top of the 10th, Lawrie mashed it over the left field wall, and the A’s beat the New York Yankees 4-3 in the opener of a three-game series in the Bronx. Lawrie struck out in each of his first three plate appearances before connecting off Betances, who came in having allowed just one home run in 42 innings this season.
With that, the A’s won their first extra-inning game since Sept. 21 of last season, when they beat the Phillies 8-6 in 10 innings. They had lost six in a row in extra frames leading up to Tuesday, and their futility in one-run games this season is well documented. Tuesday’s victory was just their seventh in 28 one-run contests in 2015.
Sonny Gray made his return to the mound after a 12-day layoff following his battle with salmonella. He went seven innings and allowed three runs.
The A’s trailed 3-2 in the sixth before Billy Butler lined a game-tying homer to left.
Starting pitching report:
Gray got touched for early runs, but he wound up sticking around for seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits. The freshly minted All-Star walked three and was clearly not his most dominant, which wasn’t surprising given his layoff. But bottom line, he kept the A’s in the game and gave them a chance to win.
After being handed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, the Yankees got to Gray for two in the bottom half. Both came with two outs, as Brian McCann and Garrett Jones delivered back-to-back RBI singles. It was a 2-2 game when New York again broke through with two outs, this time in the fourth. Gray got Chris Young to hit into a double play, which moved McCann to third. Then Didi Gregorious singled up the middle for a 3-2 Yankees lead.
Bullpen report:
Was there any doubt this one would get tense before the A’s could celebrate?
After Drew Pomeranz delivered two scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth, Tyler Clippard brought on the high-wire act. He walked two and then ran the count to 3-0 against Yankees cleanup man Mark Teixeira with two outs. But Clippard battled back and got Teixeira swinging on a changeup to end it.
At the plate:
The A’s struck early against right-hander Nathan Eovaldi. Stephen Vogt singled with one out and came around to score when Josh Reddick bounced a single up the middle with two outs. In the third, it was Vogt driving in the run. Marcus Semien, Billy Burns and Vogt all singled in succession, and that tied the game 2-2. But the A’s let Eovaldi off the hook that inning. With runners at the corners and no outs, they couldn’t push any more runs across.
Butler tied it in the sixth, lining the first pitch he saw from reliever Chasen Shreve for a solo shot to left that made it 3-3. It stayed that way until Lawrie’s blast.
In the field:
With the game tied, shortstop Marcus Semien threw in the dirt to first base on Stephen Drew’s routine grounder in the seventh, and the leadoff batter was aboard. But it didn’t hurt Gray. With one out, Chase Headley lined out to second baseman Eric Sogard, who spun and threw to second to easily double off Drew and end the inning.
Attendance:
32,337
Up next:
It’s a battle of lefties in Wednesday’s 4:05 p.m. game, with Scott Kazmir (5-5, 2.56) matching up against CC Sabathia (3-8, 5.59).
