The Yankees won their second consecutive game against the Oakland Athletics in a 7-3 victory on Wednesday after losing the first of a four-game series.
Here are the takeaways…
-Just like in Tuesday’s game, the Bombers got off to a fast start this time thanks to the bat Aaron Judge. Got a second life shot on a 1-2 count after the Oakland starter Joe Boyle was called for a balk on a pitch that would have struck out Judge, the outfielder sent the right-hander’s next offering over the right-field seats for a two-run jack, putting 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 hitting just .191 on the season, but he finished the night 2-for-5 (his first multi-hit game since April 13) and his counterpart -field blast could be a sign that he’s starting to breaking out of his funk at the start of the season.
-For the second game in a row, Anthony Rizzo hit a home run to right field. The long ball extended New York’s lead to 5-0 in the fifth. Going into Tuesday’s game, the first baseman had only one thing going for the season and he has now tripled that total. The left-hander went 2-for-4 and increased his batting average to .242 as he looks to get his season back on track.
– Just about the only Yankee who hasn’t struggled offensively at any point so far this season is a new signing Juan Soto. That trend continued Wednesday when 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 first-inning walk to Judge helped New York take an early lead, while his solo shot in the sixth was a response to the Athletics getting back into the game and scoring three of their own a half-inning earlier . He also had a sac fly in the fourth and went 1-for-3.
-RHP Clarke Schmidt took the ball for New York and had no problem setting up Oakland’s lineup for much of the evening. In fact, Schmidt had allowed just two hits and two walks through five innings while holding the Athletics scoreless.
In the sixth after that things went wrong Ryan Noda opened the inning with a hit-by-pitcher. Tyler Nevin followed by a double, putting runners on second and third base, with no one out and after striking out JJ Bleday and possibly find a way out of the collection with minimal damage, Brent Rooker hit the first pitch he saw from 450 feet for a three-run bomb that got the A’s right back into the game.
Schmidt’s night was over after the home run as the right-hander pitched 5.1 innings, giving up three earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six for his second win.
–Anthony Volpe And Austin Wells had two hits each. Volpe had a defense-assisted RBI triple and scored a run, while Wells had two singles and a walk and scored a run in the nine holes.
Game MVP: Aaron Judge
His home run in the first inning gave his team some juice and that energy continued throughout the game as the offense scored seven runs on 11 hits.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees conclude 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, ERA 7.89).
