About Last Night: Westward Ho! Yankees 8, A’s 2

About Last Night: Westward Ho! Yankees 8- A’s 2.

The best thing about covering a West Coast night game is that it allows me to borrow lyrics from Oklahoma:

“Oh, what a beautiful mornin’ 

Oh, what a beautiful day

I've got a beautiful feelin’

The Yankees will beat the A's”

I have a lot to say about last night's game, or this morning's game. In the words of Hedley Lamarr, “My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.”

The Yankees beat up on the Oakland A’s, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning against old friend and teammate Luis Severino. They never looked back. Severino was forced to leave in the second inning due to injury. He was grimacing while throwing warm up pitches and could not continue due to a sore right arm. It then became a bullpen game for the A's, which was not a very good thing.

Carlos Rodon allowed one run and four hits in six innings. It was his best outing since his return from the IL, and he improved his record to 1-2.  Brent Headrick, who has appeared in half of the Yankees games, struggled when he came in in the 7th inning. After getting one out, he loaded the bases and had to be bailed out by Fernando Cruz, who has pitched in almost as many games as Headrick. Their use or overuse could become a problem as we go deeper into the season.

Paul Goldschmidt, who has become a regular again, hit a three-run home run in the first inning. Ryan McMahon and Ben Rice also hit home runs. Rice has now tied Aaron Judge for the team lead in home runs with 17 and it was the 50th home run of his career. McMahon's home run was the 150th of his career.

The only Yankees who did not get hits were Jazz Chisholm, Jr., and JC Escarra. Jose Caballero, who was starting at shortstop, had two hits. Rice and Trent Grisham also had multi-hit games.

The Yankees are now 4-0 on this road trip and have won five games in a row. It is true that the Royals in particular, and the A's are not the best teams in the league. That doesn't matter. The Yankees lost two of three games to the Mets a couple of weeks ago. These are games the Yankees must win. You cannot find fault with them or criticize them for winning these games. If they lost these games, it would be a problem. We simply have to accept them for what they are, victories against lesser opponents. It is like receiving socks for Father's Day. It might not be the best gift, but it's a gift.

The Yankees have two more games against the A's before playing a stretch of games against the Guardians, Red Sox, and Blue Jays. It might be greedy to hope for a sweep against the A's, but let's be greedy. 

A Few Tidbits: 

·       The Yankees have a record of 35-22 and are in second place in the American League East. The A's have a record of 27-30 and they are in second place in the American League West. That's baseball, Suzyn.

·       In this five-game winning streak, the Yankees have outscored the opposition 36-6.

·       The A’s have gone 13 straight games without getting a win from a starting pitcher with their starters going 0-9 with a 5.64 ERA during that stretch.

·       Luis Severino is 0-3 in 4 career starts against the Yankees. He has allowed 19 runs, 15 earned in 13 2/3 innings against the Yankees. I guess Thomas Wolfe was right when he said, “you can't go home again”. At least not if you're wearing an Oakland A’s uniform.

·       Don't look now but the Blue Jays have climbed back to a .500 record.

·       On May 29th, 1997, The Yankees signed Japanese pitching star Hideki Irabu to a four-year $12.8 million contract.

The Yankees will play the second game of this three-game series against the A’ s tonight at 10:05 PM at Sutter Health Park. Ryan Weathers, (2-2, 3.14 ERA) will face J. T. Ginn, (2-3, 3.19 ERA). I forecast a win for Weathers.

(Cover image by ChatGPT)