The Athletics finally broke through in the ninth Thursday night, then trusted the bullpen to finish a 3-2 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Brent Rooker drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly, and the A’s turned a game that could have slipped early into one of their cleaner road wins of the season.
Trouble early, no collapse
Luis Severino had to work out of trouble almost immediately. The Yankees put pressure on him in the first inning, and Cody Bellinger’s RBI single gave New York a 1-0 lead before J.C. Escarra added a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0. That could have turned into a much bigger inning, but Severino limited the damage by striking out Amed Rosario and kept the A’s within reach.
He settled in from there. Severino finished with 5.0 innings, four hits, two runs, five walks and seven strikeouts. It was not a spotless outing, but it gave the A’s room to stay in the game.
A fourth-inning answer
The Athletics finally pushed back in the fourth, and they did it with two outs. Lawrence Butler and Max Muncy singled before Jeff McNeil lined a run-scoring single to left. A wild pitch by Will Warren then brought home Muncy with the tying run.
That inning changed the shape of the night. The A’s had erased the early deficit, even if the missed chances kept piling up. They stranded 11 runners and finished 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, so there were still openings left behind.
Bullpen slams the door
The relief work carried the rest of the game. Scott Barlow gave the A’s 1 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out four. Next, Hogan Harris worked around two walks in the seventh and escaped by striking out Bellinger. Then Elvis Alvarado added a clean eighth, and Joel Kuhnel handled the ninth for his first save.
That four-man stretch was the game. After Severino’s traffic-filled start, the bullpen gave the Yankees nothing the rest of the way.
The run that finally held
The winning rally came in the ninth. Nick Kurtz opened with a single off David Bednar, and Shea Langeliers followed with a double to left. Tyler Soderstrom struck out, but Rooker lifted a fly ball deep enough to center to score Kurtz and move Langeliers to third.
It was not a huge inning. It was just the one they needed.
McNeil finished 2-for-4 with the tying RBI. Kurtz and Langeliers each had two hits, while Muncy scored once and Darell Hernaiz added a pinch-hit single. The Yankees managed only four hits all night, went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and hit into two double plays.
Small margin, clean finish
The A’s did not overpower the Yankees. They just held the game together long enough to take it late.
After the rough first inning, that mattered. After the missed chances, it mattered even more. This time, they got the final pitch and the final lead.
Up next
The Athletics and Yankees wrap up their series Friday at 10:35 a.m. PT at Yankee Stadium, with left-hander Jeffrey Springs scheduled to start for the A’s against Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
