| Advertisement |
NEW YORK -- For most of Friday night, the Oakland Athletics were flailing and missing at Masahiro Tanaka's sliders and split-fingered fastballs. Eventually, the Athletics did enough to see a different arm and the result was different, especially since Sean Manaea matched Tanaka.
Advertisement
Manaea pitched seven scoreless innings and Jed Lowrie hit the tiebreaking single with two outs in the top of the eighth inning as Oakland overcame 13 strikeouts by Tanaka and recorded a 4-1 victory over the New York Yankees.
Manaea (3-3) found out Wednesday he was being moved up a day when Kendall Graveman was scratched with a sore right shoulder and turned in one the best starts of his career. He allowed four hits, struck out eight while tying a career-high with 106 pitches.
The left-hander also had the task of going up against Tanaka, who was coming off two dismal starts. Tanaka recorded all of his strikeouts on swinging splitters or sliders but because Manaea shut the Yankees down, the right-hander took a tough loss and became the first Yankee to strike out 13 in a loss.
"He was incredible tonight," Manaea said.
Tanaka (5-4) allowed an unearned run and five hits, took his third straight loss and struck out seven hitters at least once, including Matt Joyce three times.
Adam Rosales and Lowrie were the only A's not to strike out and both factored in knocking Tanaka out and getting the lead.
Rosales followed a 10-pitch strikeout by Mark Canha by lining Tanaka's 111th pitch up the middle. Tanaka was replaced by Tyler Clippard, whose two-base throwing error on a pickoff attempt moved Rosales to third.
Rosales was thrown out at the plate by third baseman Chase Headley on a ground ball by Rajai Davis but Oakland still kept the rally alive. After Davis stole second and Joyce walked, Lowrie grounded the first pitch up the middle.
"He pitched so well but it is a kind of a relief to see him leave the game," Rosales said of Tanaka.
Lowrie's third hit was followed by Khris Davis beating out an infield single to shortstop Didi Gregorius and the A's added two more on a two-run homer by Stephen Vogt in the ninth.
"You just got to hang in there," Khris Davis said. "He didn't make many mistakes.
Oakland was able to hang in because Manaea hardly made any mistakes. He only put multiple runners on in the seventh when Aaron Judge singled and Gregorius reached on catcher's interference but escaped when Headley hit into a double play.
"It was great," Khris Davis said. "He was out there chucking. He's not an easy AB. He's got Chris Sale stuff where people were swinging and missing in the zone. So it was great to see that."
"They just didn't seem to pick Manaea tonight," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We haven't seen him a lot and he's got a little bit different angle."
Ryan Madson pitched a scoreless eighth but Santiago Casilla wobbled in the ninth. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Gregorius but stranded two in the ninth by retiring pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez.
Tanaka looked more like the pitcher who fired a three-hitter in Boston on April 27 than the one who allowed 14 runs and 16 hits over 4 2/3 innings in his previous two starts.
"Really encouraged," Girardi said. "The two things that I thought he needed to have were his slider and his split and he had them both. I think that's why we saw him perform really well tonight."
Before Oakland knocked him out and went ahead, Tanaka struck out five of the first six hitters.
Oakland also had two on in the fourth but Tanaka struck out Trevor Plouffe to end the inning. The seventh ended when Vogt hit a fly ball that required center fielder Aaron Hicks to make the catch while crashing into the wall.
NOTES: Oakland RHPs Kendall Graveman (right shoulder soreness) and Jesse Hahn (strained triceps) were not with the team since they were getting evaluated. Manager Bob Melvin said there is a "good chance" Graveman and Hahn will be placed on the disabled list, but a move will not occur until Saturday. ... LHP Aroldis Chapman (left rotator cuff inflammation) saw the Yankees' doctor Friday and could be cleared to begin throwing Saturday. ... Yankees RF Aaron Judge was a 31st-round pick of Oakland in 2010 but did not sign because he wanted to attend college.
