Getting the grit back

             The Oakland A's have been one of the hottest teams in baseball after the All-Star break and greeted the Yanks on their last visit to the Oakland Colosseum with a miserable four-game sweep. When the Yanks saw their schedule at the beginning of this season, the match-up must have appeared to be a breeze to help close out the season, but now playoff implications were on the line with Oakland a possible threat for a Wild Card spot if in case the Orioles knock the Yanks out of the AL East crown, which is too a strong possibility.



             CC Sabathia hasn't quite been himself in 2012, and with two DL stints for a pitcher who is never on the DL, the Yankees had to be concerned they wouldn't be able to count on their ace for the remainder of the season to dominate the way he's done it before. With better control and more velocity this time, Sabathia delivered an ace-like performance with 8 shutout innings that included 11 strikeouts. Opposing pitcher Jarod Parker also went 8 inning, but unlike Sabathia, he gave up a run in the 4th inning from a Granderson sacrifice fly that brought home Swisher. With a high pitch-count and it being a save situation, Girardi called for Rafael Soriano to take the ball in the 9th. With one out, Oakland pinch-hit Brandon Moss and the lefty-hitter took a hanging slider from Soriano and sent it into the second deck in right for a dramatic game-tying homer. Soriano would get out of the inning without giving up anymore runs, but the Yankees were being put to task in extra innings where they haven't been too successful this season. Hard-throwing Oakland lefty Sean Doolittle worked the 9th unscathed and came out again for the 10th. That's when Russell Martin connected on one that went over the left field wall for a walk-off 2-1 Yankees win minus the AJ Burnett pie job after.



             The next game would start out with Ivan Nova looking to build upon his good start off the DL  facing Tampa Bay against Travis Blackey, but nearly six hours later it would conclude as one of the most unlikely wins in Yankees history. Both starters were ineffective with Nova getting slapped around for doubles for two runs in the 1st inning, only to have the Yankees score three off of Blackey, started off with a solo homer from the hot-hitting Ichiro Suzuki. Andruw Jones would later walk in the inning with the bases loaded for the third run. Nova wasn't able to get it together and was given the hook by Girardi with only on out in the 3rd after giving up a homer to Stephen Drew and then walking the bases loaded. Luckily for the Yanks, Clay Rapada was able to get a ground ball double-play to escape further damage, but an inning later Rapada allowed an RBI single to Cliff Pennington that tied the game at 4-4. In the 5th, Girardi went to the bench to replace Casey McGehee and opted for the struggling lefty slugger Raul Ibanez. The old veteran delivered for the Bombers with a bomb of his own over the right field wall that gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead.



             Derek Lowe, another aged veteran the Yankees have on the roster who hasn't looked good in a while, chipped in with 2.2 solid innings of relief, but a runner he left on base would eventually score on a Chris Carter single. From that point in the 7th inning until the 13th, the game remained tied with one rally killed after another on both sides, including some phenomenal plays in the field by Yankees first base sub Steve Pearce. Freddy Garcia, in his third inning of relief in the 13th without the services of Robertson or Soriano available, finally cracked and was belted hard for a 2-run homer by Jonny Gomes and then a massive shot to left by the dangerous Yoenis Cespedes. Justin Thomas came in to relieve Garcia, but he fared no better and let up another Oakland homer, this time it was rookie Chris Carter. Down 9-5 in the bottom of the 13th inning and the crowd in Yankee Stadium all about gone for the late afternoon, the Yankees put together an unprobable rally to tie the score!! That man again, Ichiro, lead off the inning with an infield hit. After singles from Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano loaded the bases, a wild pitch uncorked by Pat Neshek allowed Ichiro to come home for a 9-6 Oakland lead. Eduardo Nunez delivered on a sacrifice fly as A-Rod was able to move to third on that wild pitch and then scored. With Cano still on base, the tying run in Ibanez came to the plate and blasted a 2-run homer deep to right and the Yankees had come all the way back to tie it at 9-9.



              Cory Wade kept the A's off the board in the top of the 14th, and the Yankee bats but it away in the bottom of the inning. Eric Chavez lead off the inning with a single and was replaced by a quicker September call-up Melky Mesa. Jeter moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt, and Oakland ended up walking Ichiro (can't blame them) to put runners on first and second with one out. The next batter, Rodriguez, singled to center for what looked to be the game-winning hit, but rounding the base at third Mesa missed the bag and had to go back. Cano came up next with the bases now loaded and weakly grounded to the pitcher who threw home to force the out. When it seemed this game would never end, Eduardo Nunez finally brought it to a close with a sharp grounder to first that Brandon Moss had trouble fielding cleanly, and fittingly, Ichiro scored the game-winning run. The 10-9 Yankees win took 5 hours and 44 minutes to complete, with a total of 18 pitchers and 29 position players used for both squads. The win brought the Yankees to a season-high twenty-five games over .500 and it was another walk-off win to pay back the A's with from the heartbreak in Oakland.



              With seven wins in a row under their belt, the Yankees were looking for number eight that would give them the sweep against Oakland and serve as their second consecutive sweep after dispatching the Blue Jays earlier in the week. Hiroki Kuroda got the call for the last game, and like Nova, was very sharp. Without a strong bite on his slider, and with the help of a blown call by the first base umpire, Cliff Pennington slapped a 2-run homer to right that increased Oakland's lead to 3-0 in the second inning after they already scored one in the first. Yankee players and coaches were barking early too at the home plate umpire for his low and wide strike zone for A's starter A.J. Griffin, but by the 5th inning the Yankee bats did the talking. Nick Swisher got it started with a 2-run homer, and then later in the inning the resurging Raul Ibanez doubled in Granderson to tie the game at 3 all. The game-winning hero from the day before, Eduardo Nunez, grounded out to second that allowed Russell Martin to score for a 4-3 Yankees lead. Again, the Yankees had fought back against adversity, but this time it would be Oakland that would squeak away with a win. Kuroda was never able to find his groove and gave up runs in the 5th and 6th from RBI singles by Cespedes and Pennington respectively. It stayed 5-4 Oakland and in the 9th Oakland manager Bob Melvin went with veteran Grant Balfour for the save. The closest the Yankees came to tying it was a drive by Alex Rodriguez deep to right field that had the crowd ready to explode, but Josh Reddick planted himself in front of the wall and caught the ball anti-climatically in his glove. Cano looked at a called third strike to end the game and the sorely-needed winning streak had ended.



            Although the Yankees didn't get the sweep, they showed some swagger in gutting out two walk-off wins against one of the hotter teams in baseballs, something that should help their chemistry as the tight race with the Orioles for the AL East continues with the Yankees clinging to a one-game lead. Next up, the 88-64 Yankees send Andy Pettitte out for his next test in the spacious Minnesota Twins ballpark....

That's not supposed to happen

             The Oakland Colosseum has served as a favorite west coast destination for the Yankees over the past couple of seasons in which they have won nine straight, including three this season. The A's were overly due to pick up the slack at home and they turned the 9-game losing deficit into a 4-game win streak in the blink of an eye.



             The A's had been hot in July, posting an 11-2 record, and the Yankees, the previous hottest team in baseball before leaving the homer-happy confines of Yankee Stadium. Freddy Garcia was slotted in to slow down the young team, but instead found himself in a 4-0 hole by the 3rd inning, thanks to a bases loaded double by Seth Smith which increased the Oakland lead to four runs. In true Yankee fashion, they chipped away in the 6th to cut the score to 4-2, but overall couldn't get the big inning against A.J. Griffin (no relation to Burnett). It came down to the 9th inning when Oakland closer Ryan Cook came out to shut the door. Nick Swisher brought the team one run nearer to tying it with a solo homerun that make it 4-3 in favor of the A's, but that was the end of the Yankee magic for the night and their 9-game win streak at Oakland was finished.



              Looking to brush off the inevitable road loss to the A's, the Yankees sent their 10-game winner Ivan Nova to the mound to start a new Oakland win streak, the only problem was A's starter Tommy Milone wasn't cooperating. The Yankee bats were blanked by Milone over his 7 innings of work while Nova grinded through 6.2 inning, giving up 2 runs and needing Boone Logan to bail him out of the 7th inning with no further damage being done. Nick Swisher was knocked out of the game trying to beat out an infield grounder and ended up straining his hip flexor, which will have him on the bench for at least the rest of the road trip. The news comes as a double blow due the fact it was earlier announced Brett Gardner will undergo season ending surgery for his mystery shoulder ailment. The offense finally woke up in the 8th with a solo homer from Russell Martin, and then in the 9th Robinson Cano tied it up with his 22nd bomb of the season which tied the game at 2-2. The pesky A's didn't let the blown save bother them, in the bottom of the 9th with one out, hits from Yoenis Cespedes, Jonny Gomes, and finally the hero Brandon Moss off of the losing pitcher, Cody Eppley, gave the A's the walk-off win.



             After being out-pitched by the A's in two straight games, the Yankees were hoping Phil Hughes could stop the trend, and unfortunately he couldn't. Jarrod Parker (yet another 'who?' in the A's rotation) out pitched Hughes by only giving up one run in 8 innings. Hughes took the hard luck loss and only received one run of support while giving up solo homeruns to Cespedes in the 4th and Brandon Inge in the 8th. This time around Sean Doolittle was sent to the mound by Bob Melvin to finish the game and there would be no 9th inning homers from the Yankees who fell 2-1 to the A's.



           Now looking to just be able to leave town without the total embarasment of getting swept in four games, CC Sabathia was called upon to be the ace once again and stop the losing streak, and for a while it looked like he might be the one to do it. In a match-up that already took place in Oakland, Sabathia had the 4-0 advantage over former-Yankee heavyweight Bartolo Colon by the 4th inning with a solo homerun from Curtis Granderson, his 26th of the season. Sabathia, making his second start from being on the DL, despite going 7 innings, wasn't as sharp as his first outing against the hapless Blue Jays, and gave up two solo homers in the 5th, and another run in the 6th off of a fielder's choice groundout. The Yankees failed to tack on any insurance runs and it would come back to sting them. Rafael Soriano came on for the save and to stop the Yankee bleeding, and the man who had been excellent all season in Mariano Rivera's shoes and only blew one save up to this point, managed to blow his second save of the season at a very bad time by allowing a solo homerun to Seth Smith over the centerfield wall which erased the Yankee lead and made it all tied 4 all. There would be no shirt untucking this time for Soriano, who at least got out of the inning with no further damage.



              It became a battle of the bullpens and the Yankees had a good chance in the 10th to go ahead by a run, but Derek Jeter took a called strike three with Cano left stranded at second. Then in the top of the 12th there was a golden opportunity to take the lead when Mark Teixeira singled and ended up on second base with a throwing error from Josh Reddick to start the inning. Robinson Cano, who had his multigame hitting streak ended the previous day, lined out to center afterwards. Alex Rodriguez was intentionally walked and A's lefty Jerry Blevins got out of his own jam by getting Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez to hit infield pop ups and the Yankee run chance was spoiled. Where the Yankees left the door open, the A's took advantage. Cody Eppley was on the mound for another Oakland walk-off win in the bottom of the 12th when Coco Crisp managed a two-out single that scored Derek Norris from second base, and the Yankees had officially been swept!!



                Even though the Yankees had lost each of the games by the margin of one run, which included an untimely blown save from the usually reliable Rafael Soriano, still the young and frisky A's had out-pitched and out-hit the mighty Yankees, who dropped below the 20 games over .500 mark with a 57-38 record and saw their lead in the AL East decrease to 6 games. The Yanks will try to salvage something from this west coast getaway with a trip to Seattle against the Mariners, and of course will draw King Felix Hernandez in the second game....