OAKLAND, Calif. _ They aren't going down without a fight. Luke Voit homered to lead off the eighth inning to rally the New York Yankees to a 5-1 win over the Oakland A's Tuesday and keep their battle for the top wild card spot alive and well.
The win gives the Yankees back a 4.5-game lead over the A's for the American League's first wild card spot with one regular-season game left to play head-to-head. The Bombers came into this series with the 4.5-game lead.
It was a big win for the Yankees in what is proving to be a critical series.
With the Boston Red Sox likely to easily win the AL East, the Yankees' postseason hopes will have to go through the one-game elimination, wild card game. That means it will likely have to go through this young, scrappy and hungry A's team.
So the Yanks are fighting to avoid having to make a cross-country flight to play that dangerous team here in the Oakland Coliseum.
And it was Voit, acquired for two relievers last month, who delivered the disabling blow.
It was Voit's third straight game with a home run, his seventh home run in his last 12 games and the fifth homer he has hit as a Yankee tying the game or giving them a lead. Adeiny Hechavarria hit his fourth of the season and first since coming to the Yankees in the ninth inning to pad the lead.
For the Yankees, it was the huge offensive breakout that they had been waiting for.
Voit had flown out to right and grounded out to second in his two previous at-bats. After taking a changeup from Fernando Rodney on the first pitch, Voit jumped him when the A's righty tried to sneak in the same pitch.
Aaron Hicks' single with two outs scored Brett Gardner to give them an insurance run.
It had taken a while for the Yankees bats to get up off the mat Tuesday.
The struggling offense had been no-hit for the first five innings with Gleyber Torres breaking it up with a two-out single through the gap at shortstop in the sixth.
Having lost six starters this season, the A's have decided to lean heavily on their bullpen now and had a "bullpen start day" planned for Tuesday.
Liam Hendriks pitched a perfect first for the A's as their opener and then gave way to Daniel Mengden, who pitched 4.2 innings of one-hit ball. After allowing the single to Torres, the A's turned to Ryan Butcher in their planned bullpen day.
Jeurys Familia loaded the bases in the seventh and walked in the tying run. The Yankees were able to get to Familia with patient at-bats. Andrew McCutchen, over-matched by Familia's fastball, fouled off balls until he worked an eight-pitch walk to load the bases. Aaron Hicks battled Familia for seven pitches before earning the run-scoring walk.
The Yankees' offensive struggles against the A's bullpen was certainly not from the novelty of facing it. They have already faced the Tampa Bay Rays several times this season when they have used a bullpen day.
"It certainly presents a challenge. I think at least having experienced it now and having gone through it, I think guys understand what to expect and know that it may be one time through the order for each (pitcher)," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "You may be getting a different guy every time, every new at-bat. You've got to have a game plan going in, understanding who is down there, having a baseline knowledge before they come in, of who they are going to match up with you and how they might attack you. Those are all things we've got to be on top of on the offense."
That urgency wasn't there early Tuesday night.
Even in the seventh, when they had the bases loaded and no outs, the Yankees were only able to bring in that one run. Familia struck out Miguel Andujar and Gary Sanchez before Neil Walker popped out on a foul ball to the third baseman against Rodney.
The Yankees were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position Tuesday night with Gardner singling in a run in the ninth.
Tuesday night, the Yankees battled back and picked up a big win in a critical series.
