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Oakland Athletics Sweep Big-Bucks Yankees; Cruise to Two Games Over .500

By Mark Sigmon

Apr 20, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez (13) reacts after swinging and missing for strike two during the first inning against the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium. Rodriguez would strike out with the bases loaded to end the first inning. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 20, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez (13) reacts after swinging and missing for strike two during the first inning against the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium. Rodriguez would strike out with the bases loaded to end the first inning. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Oakland Athletics pulled out the broom on the New York Yankees.

Hats off to CSN analyst Bip Roberts, who predicted a sweep on Sunday night before the road trip began. For the first time in nine years, the A’s have swept the Yankees in New York. They have now won their first six road games of the season. Not only that, Khris Davis ripped his first home run of the season. It was a beautiful sight for A’s fans to see as Davis hit the ball to the deepest part of the park.

In the post game interview, Chris Coghlan mentioned that the Yankee announcers were describing the Athletics as a Triple-A team with no players they could recognize. That just made the sweep that much sweeter.

I was thinking about two night’s ago: The A’s were grinding out runs while the Yankees scored all their runs on home runs. It dawned on me that the A’s had won two games without hitting a home run. I was wondering if the Athletics could sweep the Yanks without hitting a home run, but I guess we’ll never know.

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Oakland hit four big bombs last night. Mark Canha got it started with a deep drive to the opposite field. Then Davis and Coco Crisp went back to back in the top of the seventh. Coghlan added a two-run shot in the top of the eighth to essentially put the game out of reach. Four home runs in one game, and three came from the right side of the plate.

Rich Hill, former Yankee (and apparently, current unknown Athletic), pitched extremely well. He had a potential meltdown moment in the bottom of the fourth. Alex Rodriguez had walked with one out. Hill had him picked off first, as A-Rod was going on first move. Unfortunately, Hill threw the ball down the right field line. Rodriguez ended up at third and would later score on a weakly-hit little dribbler that went for an infield single.

If you remember Hill’s first start against the White Sox, he threw the ball away trying to pick off Austin Jackson, and ended up surrendering the four runs the ChiSox would use to win the game. Hill could have easily lost his composure after another errant pick-off throw. Instead, he pitched through the trouble and gave up only the one run. About ten minutes later, in the top of the fifth, Canha hit his home run and the game was knotted up once again. All in all, Hill would go six innings, which is all Bob Melvin was asking of him. He gave up four walks, three hits and one earned run. Hill also managed to strike out ten Yankee batters.

I wonder if the Yankee announcers know who he is now.

Next: The Trade of Manager Chuck Tanner

It is a minor accomplishment, but the A’s are two games over .500 at this point. Last year’s team never got to two games over .500. It would be nice if the team was still over .500 on their return to Oakland. They need three wins in Toronto and Detroit to make that happen.

This Oakland Athletics team is much improved over last year’s team. It’s okay if the high-powered Yankees with their bloated $211 million dollar payroll don’t know who these young A’s players are.  It’s always better if the other team doesn’t see the broom coming.