OAKLAND — It had to end at some point.
The Yankees’ (76-53) exultant 13-game winning streak met its death on a sticky Saturday afternoon in Oakland, killed by 90-degree heat, Kelly green uniforms and A’s starting pitcher Frankie Montas.
The 3-2 loss was a stark contrast to the type of baseball the Yankees had been playing recently, though, as the long half innings on offense disappeared. Instead, it was swings and misses all afternoon, making for a quick game and a big pickup for the Athletics (71-59) in the Wild Card standings.
Northern California’s unusually sweltering heat got both managers’ blood boiling early in the game. Already down by a run in the second inning, the Yankees gave Oakland another one thanks to a balk and, if you ask Aaron Boone, the umpires. Third base umpire Will Little called a balk on Nestor Cortes Jr.’s pickoff attempt with runners on second and third and appeared totally unsatisfied with the ump’s explanation for it.
Little’s strange day continued in the next inning when he called Starling Marte safe on a stolen base that should have been a caught stealing. But Boone had already burned his challenge to review Chad Pinder’s sliding double in the second inning, so Marte’s tainted stolen base stood as called. In a bit of karmic retribution, a call then went the Yankees way that ensured Marte wouldn’t score.
Standing on third base, Marte watched a Yan Gomes line drive zoom up the middle. DJ LeMahieu caught it and immediately fired to third to double off the leaning Marte. He got back just as third baseman Rougned Odor lunged to catch the ball, and to everyone in the world it looked as though Odor’s foot had come off the bag.
Everyone but Will Little that is.
Marte was called out, the inning ended, and Bob Melvin justifiably came out to plead his case. The A’s skipper was promptly ejected, and like the Yankees did on Thursday when Boone was rung, Melvin’s team responded with some inspired play for their departed manager.
Matt Chapman banged a home run over the 388-foot marker in left center field to extend Oakland’s lead to 3-0. It kept a dubious streak alive for Cortes, who’s been a godsend for the Yankees’ pitching staff, but has also now allowed a home run in each of his last five starts. Cortes dipped after 5.1 innings, scattering just four hits but letting two of the three walks he issued become runs.
Montas didn’t allow his second hit until the seventh inning. It was by Aaron Judge, just as the first hit Montas allowed was by Aaron Judge. The seventh-inning, no-out single set the table for the Yankees’ fearsome middle of the order, but the rally was killed in its larval stage by a Giancarlo Stanton strikeout and Joey Gallo 3-6-3 double play. The twin killing was only the 10th of Gallo’s entire seven-year career, a product of both rarely having runners on base for him during his final years in Texas and also a huge distaste for ground balls. Had they been able to scratch even one run out of that inning, or any of the innings before it, Judge’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth would not have been banished to the “too little, too late” bin.
Whatever pixie dust the Yankees found in the Iowa cornfields was all dried up on Saturday. They scored zero runs until the ninth inning and laced a total of five balls with exit velocities north of 99 that found Oakland gloves. Even Stanton’s cushy re-familiarization with the outfield suffered a hiccup, as he looked hilariously lost on a fly ball over his head late in the game.
There are dozens and dozens of games like this over the course of a 162-game season. But for the group of players and coaches who have been on this magic carpet ride for the last 13 games (and really the entire month of August) the loss brings them right back down to earth, needing a win on Sunday to take the series that they had firmly in hand after the first two games.