A's lose 10-4 to Yankees: Oakland avoids back-to-back perfect games

The Oakland A's had the chance of a lifetime: winning the game played right after they got perfected against the team that blanked them one day earlier. Too bad for the A's, they couldn't accomplish the feat.

Oakland (21-62) dropped their fourth series in a row after losing 10-4 to the New York Yankees (45-36) just 24 hours after Domingo German limited the hosts to a no-run, no-nothing type of outcome in what amounted to the 24th perfect game in MLB history.

Rookie Hogan Harris (2-2) started for the Athletics without an opener shielding him from the first few batters stepping up for the Yankees. And it kinda worked for him, truth be told, as Harris was good enough to at least reach the second inning unscathed.

The bad news: that was it for him boasting a zero.

Oakland actually got up in the scoreboard thanks to Tony Kemp leading off with a line drive to center field followed by a sac-fly by JJ Bleday that scored Kemp (who had already advanced to third base on a steal followed by an error throw).

In the top of the 2nd, the Yankees generated just enough offense to tie the game on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa solo home run making it all 1-1 with all of the game yet to unfold. Things got rocky for the visitors just an inning later, though, with the A's retaking the lead and making it a 3-1 game thanks to a bases-loaded double by Seth Brown.

The worst news: that was (almost) all Oakland had to offer on offense on Thursday, considering the game flipped from a 3-1 lead into the final 10-4 loss through the remaining six innings.

Actually, you can simply say the remaining "sixth" ininng instead.

As it's been the case through the whole first half of the season, the A's started kinda strong (for what they are) but then absolutely reached a point in the game when they completely collapse. It was the 6th inning this time, which was all the Yankees needed to demolish the Athletics and send them into oblivion.

Josh Donaldson hit a two-run homer, and Gleyber Torres added an RBI single. Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch and forced out of the game, but Giancarlo Stanton came through with a two-run double, and Harrison Bader contributed an RBI single. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, he of the earlier homer, also singled, bringing in Stanton and Anthony Volpe lined out to end the inning. The Yankees now led 10-3 after putting up eight fresh runs.

As you'd expect, the Athletics couldn't mount a comeback in the remaining innings. In fact, they could be happy to have scored one more run late in the game, courtesy of prospective All-Star Brent Rooker's single bringing Bleday home.

At the end of the day, Esteury Ruiz's near-grab shown above is a perfect summary of the series against the Yankees and the A's season as a whole: close, but no cigar.

Harris reached the sixth inning pitching 5.1 frames allowing five runs (four earned) on a monster nine hits, while also walking a couple of batters and striking out just two. Lucas Erceg had his worst game of the season in relief pitching, and he was unable to retire a single Yankee though he threw 26 pitches of which three were hit allowing five runs and a walk.

Ken Waldichuk and Austin Pruitt also made 2.2 and 1.1-inning cameos for the A's escaping any further damage and allowing just one combined hit and no runs while walking one and striking out three men.

The A's don't rest, hosting the Chicago White Sox through the weekend in a three-game series starting on Friday inside the confines of the cavernous Oakland Coliseum.

Luis Medina (1-7, 6.84) should be named the starter of the A's for the series opener though there is a chance he pitches into the second inning with an opener taking the mound before he does. The White Sox had yet to announce or offer any clues about their starter, though the rotation would call for Tanner Banks (0-2) to at least serve as the Sox opener today.

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