OAKLAND, Calf. – A Yankees offense mostly stagnant in Aaron Judge’s absence erupted for 11 runs Wednesday night, the group’s effort almost completely ignored – appropriately – because Domingo German threw the 24th perfect game in league history.
The offense did it again Thursday afternoon, this time getting the spotlight entirely to itself.
Boosted by an eight-run sixth inning and racking up all of their 13 hits through six innings, the Yankees blasted the beyond dreadful A’s, 10-4, at Oakland Coliseum.
The Yankees (45-36) outscored the A’s (21-62), 21-4, the last two games after dropping the first game of the series. The Bombers, who got home runs from Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Josh Donaldson, who hit two in the series, open a three-game series against the Cardinals Friday night in St. Louis.
Each starting position player except catcher Jose Trevino had at least one hit, with Harrison Bader’s three leading the way. Kiner-Falefa had a team-best three RBIs, and Gleyber Torres and the resurgent Anthony Volpe added two apiece.
The Yankees, who actually trailed 3-2 after three innings, sent 13 to the plate in the eight-run sixth that turned that one-run deficit into a 10-3 lead.
Clarke Schmidt allowed a leadoff single to the A’s first batter to quickly end any drama about the possibility of back-to-back perfect games (or no-hitters). The righthander, with a 2.19 ERA in his previous seven starts, didn’t pitch to that level Thursday, but with the offense’s performance, he didn’t have to. Schmidt (3-6, 4.37) allowed three runs, give hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings in which he struck out three.
His counterpart, lefthander Logan Harris (2-2, 5.17), allowed five runs (four earned) and two walks over 5 1/3 innings. Righty Lucas Erceg replaced him in the sixth and did not retire a batter, allowing four runs, three hits and a walk.
After DJ LeMahieu walked to lead off the game, the Yankees stranded him at second. The A’s then took the lead in the bottom half of the inning.
Leadoff man Tony Kemp lined a single to center, stole second and took third on a subsequent throwing error by catcher Jose Trevino. Ryan Noda popped to third but JJ Bleday’s sacrifice fly to left made it 1-0.
The Yankees drew even with two outs in the second when Kiner-Falefa, who hit four homers all of last season, hit his fifth of 2023, a shot to center on a 1-and-2, 93-mph fastball.
After pitching around a leadoff walk to Connor Cape – who stole second with one out – in the second, Schmidt gave up two more runs in the third. The inning started with back-to-back walks to Noda and Bleday and Seth Brown followed by roping an RBI single into the gap in right-center. Carlos Perez’s sacrifice fly to center brought in Bleday to make it 3-1.
The Yankees pulled within one in the fourth when Bader led off with a double and came in later in the inning on Kiner-Falefa’s sacrifice fly to short left that made it 3-2.
It stayed that way until the sixth, an inning Bader jumpstarted with a single. Donaldson, who homered Friday night against the team he debuted with in 2010, followed with his eighth homer of the season, a 472-foot moonshot to left-center, giving the Yankees the lead for good at 4-3. Torres contributed a two-run single in the inning and Stanton added a two-run double. Bader and Kiner-Falefa also had run-scoring singles in the inning that turned the contest into a laugher.
