With the Yankees in need of a few wins, the Athletics provided the perfect punching bag.
After scoring seven and 10 runs in the first two games of this week’s series, the Bronx Bombers tagged Oakland for double digits again on Wednesday in an 11-3 blowout. The bludgeoning gave the Yankees their first sweep of the season — and some positive vibes heading into a pivotal stretch against competitive division rivals.
The abysmal A’s found themselves in an immediate hole Wednesday, as a Gleyber Torres sac fly put the Yankees on the board before the red-hot Harrison Bader drove a three-run jack to right. Umps checked the dinger for fan interference, but the home run ultimately stood.
Bader is now hitting .429 with a 1.341 OPS, two triples, three home runs and 11 RBI over eight games since coming off the injured list.
Second-inning solo shots from Carlos Perez and Jace Peterson, hit off Jhony Brito, cut Oakland’s deficit in half, but the Yankees blew the game open with seven runs in the fifth. The frame included a two-run homer from DJ LeMahieu and the first grand slam of Anthony Volpe’s young career.
Brito didn’t allow any other runs over 4.1 wobbly innings, while JJ Bleday took Deivi Garcia deep in the 23-year-old’s return to the majors.
The Yankees and A’s are both in last place in their respective divisions, but the pinstripers, 21-17, were supposed to beat up on their eight-win opponent at home. Now comes the hard part following a relative reprieve in the Yankees’ schedule.
Thursday brings the start of a four-game home set with the first-place Rays, who won two-out-of-three games against the Yankees at Tropicana Field this past weekend. One run decided each contest, but the Yankees spoiled a golden opportunity to win the series when Gerrit Cole blew a 6-0 lead last Sunday.
“We progressed as a group throughout the series,” Cole said after that game. “I just let ‘em down today by coughing up the lead.”
Once the Yankees wrap things up with Tampa, another American League East test awaits in Toronto. The club heads north of the border Monday for another four-game series against the Blue Jays from May 15-18.
Toronto took a three-game series from the Yanks in the Bronx earlier this season.
From there, a three-game voyage to Cincinnati interrupts the barrage of division opponents before the Yankees host the Orioles from May 23-25. New York edged the O’s in a three-game series during its first road trip of the season.
The Yankees still haven’t played the Red Sox — and won’t until a home and away series in June — but the AL East is looking like a gauntlet in the early going of 2023. The Yankees were the last team in the division to reach 20 wins, and they’re 4-5 against the East so far.
With the team sitting in the cellar, the next two weeks offer a chance to gain ground after the Yankees put themselves in an early hole.