Field Level Media
Aug 22, 2019
Mike Fiers ran his streak of consecutive starts without a loss to 19, and Liam Hendriks struck out Aaron Judge representing the potential go-ahead run to end the eighth inning Wednesday night, lifting the Oakland Athletics to a 6-4 victory over the visiting New York Yankees.
Khris Davis, Marcus Semien and Stephen Piscotty homered for the A's, who improved to 5-1 on their nine-game homestand by beating the Yankees for the second straight night.
The Yankees out-hit the A's 11-6 but left 10 runners on base, including two in the eighth when trailing 6-4.
Hendriks was summoned to replace left-hander A.J. Puk, who got one out in his major league debut, with one down and runners on first and third in the eighth. The Oakland right-hander struck out DJ LeMahieu and Judge in succession to protect the lead.
Hendriks was facing Judge for the first time since the Yankees slugger belted a two-run, first-inning homer off the Athletics' "opener" in last year's American League wild-card game.
Now the Oakland closer, Hendrick also worked a 1-2-3 ninth, adding a third strikeout, for his 15th save.
The A's trailed 1-0 before Davis bombed a two-run homer off Yankees starter J.A. Happ (10-8) in the second inning. Semien added a two-run shot in the third.
The homers were the 18th of the season for Davis and 22nd for Semien.
Piscotty's 13th homer, a solo shot, increased the Oakland lead to 6-2 in the sixth.
Happ was pulled three batters into the fifth inning, charged with five runs on four hits in four-plus innings. He walked two and struck out four.
Fiers (12-3), who hasn't lost since May 1, held the Yankees to two runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out four.
The Yankees narrowed the gap to 6-4 in the seventh inning on Mike Ford's fifth homer, a solo shot, and an RBI double by Didi Gregorius. But New York stranded two runners in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
Piscotty finished with two hits for the A's, who have won six of their past seven.
Ford went 3-for-4, while Gregorius, Gio Urshela and Mike Tauchman added two hits apiece for the Yankees, who lost their third straight.
--Field Level Media