Yankees 10, Athletics 4: Do we smell a hot streak for this Judge-less offense?

There was a little bit of a scare early on in the Yankees’ series finale in Oakland. The last-place A’s had jumped ahead, 3-1, and they still held the lead halfway through this ballgame. Was the team a bit sluggish after the excitement of the perfect game on Wednesday night?

If there was any malaise, the New York lineup shook it off in explosive fashion with an eight-run inning that vaulted the Yankees ahead, 10-3, and essentially any doubt about this series. Aaron Boone’s team won by six to take the three-game set ahead of another road showdown in St. Louis this weekend.

Once the Yankees move on from Oakland, the asterisk of punishing a pitching staff with a 6.05 ERA—by far and away the biggest in the bigs—will be brought up. However, while they do make some sense, for a ballclub that wasn’t doing any damage regardless of opponent, it is more than encouraging to see crooked numbers on back-to-back blowout wins.

The Yankees got their first run with a solo shot from Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the top of the second that took off Esteury Ruiz’s glove in dead center. In the subsequent innings though, they struggled to capitalize on hard contact. In fact, after that homer, between the second and third frames, the Yanks had four batted balls at 102.8 mph or higher, but not a run to show for it. That can partly be attributed to an untimely double play from Anthony Rizzo in the third.

As New York struggled to get much on the board, the A’s plated a first-inning run off Clarke Schmidt and then tallied two more in the third when the right-hander issued two-straight walks to begin the frame. Both runners came around the score on single by Seth Brown and a sacrifice fly from Carlos Pérez.

In the fourth inning, it was IKF again who helped the Yankees inch closer on the scoreboard. The utilityman cut the A’s lead to 3-2 with a sac fly of his own to plate Harrison Bader, who had doubled at the outset of the frame.

The worst staff in baseball finally unraveled in the sixth, as Bader once again led off the inning reaching base safely. He was promptly followed by the biggest Josh Donaldson home run in the Statcast era, as the third-baseman absolutely demolished a changeup 472 feet:

After an IKF fly out and single from Anthony Volpe, A’s manager Mark Kotsay came out to replace his southpaw starter. In came one of the few relievers in the Oakland bullpen with strong numbers on the year, in Lucas Erceg and his (at the time) 2.25 ERA. Long story short, his ERA is now at 4.05.

The A’s right-hander had back-to-back pickoff throws which should have gotten Volpe picked off, but on both times, Ryan Noda couldn’t handle the throw, with the second one rolling down the foul line and allowing Volpe to take second. That was all that went right for Erceg, as the following six hitters all reached base safely, including two hit-by-pitches, and a two-run double from Giancarlo Stanton. Check out the full reel of the big inning below:

Erceg left the game without a single out, and the Yankees still had time to put up another run. IKF came back around for his second trip to the plate in the frame to knock an RBI single off Ken Waldichuk. That upped the visiting team’s lead to 10-3.

The success of the offense will be the headline, but Schmidt deserves plenty of praise for the work he did after a rough first few innings in his afternoon. After the Brown single in the third, the Yankees’ starter retired 10 consecutive batters, before surrendering a one-out double to Jace Peterson in the bottom of the sixth. That spelled the end of his outing.

Schmidt left the game having gone five and a third on 93 pitches, with three earned runs, surviving long enough to get the overdue run support he was owed. He received more runs this time around (10), than he had in his previous five starts (eight).

With a comfortable seven-run lead, the New York bullpen sailed smoothly through the final 3.2 frames to secure the win and this series victory over the last-place A’s, allowing only a single run in the bottom of the eighth. Ian Hamilton also made his first appearances since returning from the IL, tossing a scoreless seventh.

The only bad news from the day came from Rizzo, as he was plunked on his back elbow and had to leave the game. X-rays on him were negative, but Boone said that they will probably refrain from starting him tomorrow, just to be safe.

Next up for the Yankees is a somewhat-rare trip to Busch Stadium, where they’ll face the underachieving Cardinals. Luis Severino is set to face southpaw Matthew Liberatore with first pitch coming in the Amazon Prime Video game at 8:15pm ET.

Box Score