OAKLAND -– A’s manager Bob Melvin doesn’t hesitate to call on his battle-tested veteran relievers, but his trip to the mound in the top of the sixth set in motion a sequence that turned Sunday’s game in the Yankees’ favor.
With two outs and two men on, Melvin replaced starter Jesse Hahn with John Axford to face switch hitter Mark Teixeira. Axford proceeded to give up two run-scoring singles that erased a one-run A’s lead and put the Yankees ahead for good in their 5-4 victory at the Coliseum.
With that the Yankees completed just their second four-game sweep of the A’s in Oakland. The first came in July 1979. The loss completed a deflating weekend for the A’s, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers when the Yankees arrived. Key injuries to Josh Reddick and Sonny Gray, combined with the sweep by the Bombers, have completely reversed the mojo the A’s had going when their seven-game homestand began.
Had Melvin’s sixth-inning call to the bullpen been executed with no runs scoring, no one would have thought twice about the decision. But the turn of events typified the way this series went for the home team.
The A’s had just gone ahead in the bottom of the fifth on Stephen Vogt’s two-run double to give Oakland a 3-2 lead. But New York’s two runs in the sixth stole the momentum right back. The Yankees added a run off Sean Doolittle in the seventh.
The A’s fought back with a run off lefty reliever Andrew Miller in the eighth, but Aroldis Chapman came in with his 100-plus mile per hour heat to close the door and seal it for the Yankees.
The Yankees came in just 5-12 on the road, one of the worst marks in the majors, but the A’s made them feel quite at home.
