A’s walk-off in extras, sweep Yankees

The A's celebrate again.

I just invested four hours of my Sunday watching the Yankees stop scoring runs after the fourth inning so I’ll keep this one quick. Bartolo Colon gave the A’s six and two-thirds innings of four run ball, which was good enough to keep the team in the game. At one point it looked like the Yankees were going to cruise, but CC Sabathia wound up giving up two runs in the fifth on two solo shots and another run in the sixth, making it a 4-3 ball game.

Seven innings of three run ball from the big guy was good, not great, but it set the Yankees up nicely for the win. David Robertson was his usual self in the eighth, striking out two but letting a runner get to second. That left a one run save in the hands of Rafael Soriano. Soriano has been just about automatic this season, making it hard to complain about the rare blown save, but it happened all the same. Seth Smith hit a towering fly ball over the 400 foot sign in dead center to tie the game.

The Yankees had their chances in extras, putting runners on in the 10th and the 12th innings, but they never came up with that big hit. In the bottom of the 12th Coco Crisp plunked one into shallow right to win the game, mercifully ending a disappointing outing.

Yankee fans can start complaining now. It’s bad enough when your team loses four in a row under any circumstances, but to lose four in a row to the same team, including two walk-offs is just miserable.

The team moves on to Seattle where they’ll face Kevin Millwood. The Bombers need to take advantage of the weak starter quickly because Felix Hernandez pitches in the next series, which is a guaranteed loss.