DJ LeMahieu blasts walk-off home run as Yankees sneak past A’s

The Yankees entered game two of this series having lost their last four games against the Athletics. Domingo German was called upon for the Yankees to try and end the slide. He would be up against Homer Bailey, who owned a 1.93 ERA over his previous three starts.

The Yankees drew first blood in the second inning. Gary Sanchez tanked one into the upper deck in left. It was his 31st of the season, and gave the Yanks an early 1-0 lead.

Oakland struck back in the top of the fourth, however. Matt Chapman started it off with a single up the middle, then Matt Olson followed up by absolutely blasting an off-speed pitch into the bleachers in right. That 412-foot homer put the A’s ahead, 2-1.

Domingo German otherwise had a strong day on the bump. His day was finished after five, but he gave up just two runs on four hits, and fanned five batters. He essentially made just one bad pitch during his outing on the dinger by Olson. Nonetheless, he gave the Yankees enough to win the game.

Since the Bombers were down 2-1, though, German was lined up for the loss. Sanchez decided he wasn’t going to let that happen. He smashed his second home run of the game, this time to the opposite field, tying the game at two apiece. That gave him his third multi-homerun game of the season, and the 14th of his career.

Jonathan Loaisiga entered in relief in the sixth, and got himself in a jam quickly. The Athletics loaded the bases with only one man out. However, Loaisiga was able to wiggle his way out of trouble as he struck out Sheldon Neuse and then got Chris Herrmann to ground out to Didi Gregorius, who made a spectacular throw off his back foot to end the inning.

Bailey was stellar against every Yankee whose name wasn’t Gary.. He went 5.2 innings, surrendering two solo shots to The Kraken, four hits, and nine Ks. Blake Treinen came in to record the final out of the sixth and pitched a scoreless seventh as well.

In the top of the seventh, Aaron Boone called upon Adam Ottavino. After retiring the first batter he faced, “Otto” gave up a single to Robbie Grossman, and Matt Chapman ripped a double down the third base line to drive Grossman home. For what it’s worth, the ball looked to be slightly foul, but the Yankees oddly did not elect to challenge the call. With that, the A’s retook the lead, 3-2.

After getting the first two outs in the eighth inning, Zack Britton had to be taken out of the game. He came up limping after delivering a pitch, but it was announced that he left with right calf cramping. He appears to have escaped any sort of major injury. Chad Green entered to replace him and walked his first three batters to load the bases, but was able to get a strikeout to end the threat.

Joakim Soria entered to pitch for Oakland with the Yankees down to their final six outs. He started the eighth by mowing down the first two Yankees he faced in Mike Tauchman and DJ LeMahieu but that’s when Aaron Judge stepped up to the plate and tied the game. An opposite-field solo shot into the upper deck made the score 3-3. It was his 19th bomb of the year and his sixth long ball in his last eight games.

Aroldis Chapman came out of the bullpen to pitch the ninth. He stranded runners at first and second to get the Yanks to the bottom of the ninth tied at three, but they went down quietly, so we had free baseball on our hands!

The Yankees’ eighth pitcher of the day, Cory Gearrin, pitched the tenth and eleventh innings. To the bottom of the eleventh we went, but we weren’t there for long. DJ LeMahieu crushed the first pitch of the inning into the right field seats for a walk-off home run of off Lou Trivino:

All four Yankees runs came via four solo home runs. With this the final game of August, the Yankees have set the record for most homers in a calendar month with 74.

The final game of this three-game set will be tomorrow afternoon with J.A. Happ on the mound against Sean Manaea, who is making his 2019 debut. The Yankees have not lost a home series since April, and will look to keep that streak rolling.