Athletics fall to Yankees in extras 4-2

Tough way to start the final home stand

Oakland came up on the losing side of a pitching matchup, falling in 10 innings to the New York Yankees by a final of 4-2.

We had a low-scoring affair tonight on a chilly evening at the Coliseum. New York had their reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and future Hall-of-Famer Gerrit Cole going up against the good guys during game one tonight, while the Athletics countered with a rookie in JT Ginn who has made just a handful of starts. The two opponents couldn’t be coming into this game any farther apart in their careers.

Cole came into this game posting relatively average numbers after starting the year on the IL with elbow issues. Tonight he showed up and then some. Cole allowed just two hits over nine full frames, holding down an Oakland lineup that has been coming into its own here in the final weeks of the year.

The only run the A’s managed to push across against Cole came in the top of the fourth inning. Right fielder Lawrence Butler singled to lead off the frame, also the Athletics’ first hit of the night. He then proceeded to swing second base and put himself not only in scoring position, but also tied with some A’s history:

Who else can smell a record about to shatter?

A couple of outs later and it felt like Butler may end up being stranded on the basepaths, wasting a rare opportunity to score against Cole. Well, catcher Shea Langeliers came up to bat and made sure to cash in:

Oakland’s cleanup hitter comes through in the clutch yet again. He struck out three other times tonight but he was one of only two A’s hitters to collect hits against the legendary Cole. We’ll take that.

The righty rookie JT Ginn meanwhile did his best to match Cole inning for inning. Facing a vaunted Yankees lineup Ginn performed admirably, going five full innings while allowing just a single run himself. Many other nights that would be enough to earn the win but not tonight, and Ginn is still on the hunt for that first W on his record. Still, facing a lineup that has guys like Aaron Judge in it is a tough task and to have finished five innings of one-run ball was terrific. Even manager Mark Kotsay had high praise for Ginn after tonight:

After Ginn came a parade of relievers out of the Oakland ‘pen. Six different arms pitched in this one after Ginn’s outing. Righties Michel Otanez, Tyler Ferguson and All-Star closer Mason Miller, as well as left-hander Scott Alexander, all tossed a scoreless inning in tonight’s effort. It was an overall terrific night from the bullpen as a whole but one bad outing can put a stink on an otherwise solid performance. That rough performance came in the top of the 10th inning. With a ghost runner on second base already to start the inning, TJ McFarland started the inning and wasn’t fooling anyone. Three hits and three runs later and the Yankees had taken a late extra-inning lead. Not looking good.

Oakland of course gets the last chance while at home and while they did manage to bring in their ghost runner, the club fell short in this one tonight, getting the door shut in the series’ first game and sending fans home cold and sad.

Owch. Not the best ending, but going to-to-toe with an ace like Gerrit Cole is something to be proud of. Now it’s time to take the next step and actually knock him off his pedestal and win against him. It won’t be Cole for New York tomorrow but it’ll be someone who offers just as much of a challenge. Left-hander Carlos Rodon is set to take the ball tomorrow night for the Evil Empire while the A’s will counter with the veteran of their staff, fellow lefty JP Sears. Let’s take that one, shall we?