Yankees Get Bupkis In Oakland

The Yankees hadn't hit big in the 1st 2 games of their series away to the Oakland Athletics. But in last night's game, pardon my use of a technical term, but... Hoo, boy.

Domingo Germán started for the Yankees, and went 7 2/3rds innings, pitching shutout ball, allowing just 3 hits and no walks. It was his best performance in a long time. And what kind of support did he get? Pardon my use of a technical term, but... He got bupkis.

Adam Oller started for the A's. Here's all the baserunners the Yankees got off him in his 8 innings of work: A walk by Aaron Judge in the 1st inning, Andrew Benintendi reaching on an error in the 4th, a double by Oswaldo Cabrera in the 6th... and that's it. Three baserunners. One hit.

And yet, because Germán pitched so well, and Jonathan Loáisiga and Ron Marinaccio completed the 9-inning shutout, the game was 0-0 and went to extra innings.

I hate extra innings. Especially on the Pacific Coast. The games end late enough as it is.

Finally, in the top of the 10th inning, the Yankees got something going, with the help of the stupid "ghost runner" rule. Benintendi grounded into a fielder's choice, eliminating Kyle Higashioka at 3rd base but putting himself on 1st. Unwritten Rule of Baseball: Never make the 1st or last out of the inning at 3rd base. Judge struck out. Josh Donaldson was intentionally walked to set up the inning-ending double play. Unintentionally, Anthony Rizzo was hit with a pitch to load the bases. A wild pitch allowed Benintendi to score, and a bad throw to try to stop him allowed Donaldson to score. 2-0 Yankees.

But Marinaccio couldn't hold the lead, giving up a game-tying home run to Stephen Vogt. The Yankees couldn't score in the top of the 11th. And Gleyber Torres made an error in the bottom of the 11th, giving the A's the victory.

A's 3, Yankees 2. WP: Joel Prayamps (3-3). No save. LP: Lou Trivino (2-8). One hit in 11 innings.

The series concludes this afternoon, and the Yankees have got to do better than that. Clarke Schmidt starts for the Yankees, in the place of the injured (or is that "injured"?) Nestor Cortes, Adrián Martínez for the A's.