NEW YORK — Call them the Comeback Kids now. The Yankees, who won all three of their games against the Blue Jays this week by rallying, came from behind Saturday to beat the A’s, 7-5, in front of a smaller than anticipated crowd at Yankee Stadium.
It was the Yankees’ (37-33) fourth win in their last five games and tied the series with the A’s (44-28), looking to win it Sunday with Jordan Montgomery on the mound. Yankee Stadium was fully open without COVID-19 restrictions for the first time on Friday. Saturday they had a crowd just under half full with 23,985 fans in the park, slightly fewer than the night before.
Aroldis Chapman brought up the tying run after giving up a run on a one-out walk and back-to-back two-out singles. The Yankees closer struck out A’s third baseman Matt Chapman on a 103-mph fastball to end the game.
Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez each homered and DJ LeMahieu singled in two runs as the Yankees overcame the hole that Domingo German put them in.
German had his second straight shaky start after being the Yankees’ most reliable starter behind Gerrit Cole over the last month and a half. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits over four innings (plus four hitters) Saturday. He struck out six and walked two.
In the 12 games since a report that MLB cracked down on pitchers’ sticky substances by suspending four minor leaguers, the Yankees pitching staff has posted a 5.60 ERA and allowed 15 home runs. In the 58 games before that, they had a combined 3.34 ERA and gave up 63 home runs.
Urshela hit his ninth homer of the season to give the Yankees the lead in the eighth. It was the 35th he has hit with the Yankees. Of those, 16 have either tied a game (seven) or given the Yankees the lead (nine). Eight of his last 11 home runs have been game-tying or go-ahead homers.
Sanchez hit his 11th home run and fifth in the last 10 games to lead off the sixth. The catcher has been the Yankees’ hottest hitter going into Saturday’s game. In the last 20 games, he was slashing .292/.361/.585 with a .946 OPS and five home runs.
Aaron Boone acknowledged that Saturday by moving the catcher up to the No. 3 spot in the lineup for the first time this season. Sanchez lost his starting job last season; he had just nine plate appearances in the playoffs and was back splitting time with Kyle Higashioka earlier this year. Despite Sanchez having the Yankees’ hottest bat and the offense still looking for some traction, Boone had him out of the lineup on Friday night as a day off. He still will not pair Sanchez with Cole, who has made clear his preference for Higashioka behind the plate. Boone says he sees it as a built in day off for Sanchez.
The Yankees’ first run came in the fourth when Aaron Judge led off with a single and scored from second on Urshela’s line drive to center field. In the seventh, Judge again led off with a single, advanced on Sanchez’s walk and scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s groundball past a diving A’s first baseman Matt Olson to tie the game.
German had strong stuff, but unraveled quickly.
He gave up a one-out, solo home run to Tony Kemp in the first and another to Matt Chapman in the fourth. German is a power pitcher who attacks the strike zone. Because he is pitching to the zone, when he gets beat, it’s usually a home run. He’s allowed a team-high 14 this season.
But in the fifth inning, the A’s got to him with back-to-back hard-hit singles to lead off the inning and then he walked Kemp to load the bases for Olson, who singled in two runs.
Nestor Cortes, Jr. did strong work coming in to shut down the inning and giving the Yankees three scoreless innings. Chad Green pitched a perfect inning.
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