Yankees come up empty in loss to Athletics, wasting strong outing by Nestor Cortes
Yankees rightfielder Juan Soto slams his bat down after striking out swinging against the Oakland Athletics during the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
There are plenty of ways to take yourself out of an inning, and on Thursday night, the Yankees seemed to find them all.
There are double plays, strike outs, long fly outs, and baserunning blunders. There are weak ground balls against the guy currently saddled with the title of worst pitcher in baseball, and swings through 102-mph fastballs that test the bounds of human ability.
In the end, it all added up to the same thing: The Yankees threatened…and threatened…and threatened, and still managed almost nothing against the lowly A’s, as they fell, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium.
Alex Wood, who came into the day with an MLB-worst 7.89 ERA was eminently hittable, but not hittable enough for the Yankees, who went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners. The display was an outlier for a team that came into the day hitting a respectable .273 with runners in scoring position and .270 with men on.
Fittingly, the Yankees brought up the tying run with one out in the ninth, with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge slated to face A’s closer Mason Miller.
Miller, whose fastball dials up to 103 mph, struck out Soto with a fastball that clocked in at a mere 102 mph. Judge flied out to deep right to end it.
The Yankees only run came on Jose Trevino’s second-inning homer.
“We were just unable to cash [the baserunners] in other than the Trevi homer,” Aaron Boone said. “One of those, you feel like you’ve got all these opportunities and you want to take advantage. You want to go in and create that traffic, but you’ve got to deliver on it.”
The parade of futility spoiled another strong outing by Nestor Cortes, who gave up all of his runs in a shaky third inning, but otherwise dominated: He allowed the three runs on five hits with no walks and four strikeouts over seven innings. This also came on the heels of seven scoreless innings off the Rays last week.
“It’s part of the game,” Cortes said. “There’s going to be days where you give up four, five and they’re going to come and pick you up from that potential loss. I think over a span of a whole year, you can count them on one hand, so I’m not too worried about it.”
In a portend of things to come, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs against Wood in the first, but Giancarlo Stanton struck out swinging and Anthony Rizzo hit into the 4-6-3 double play to extinguish the threat.
Trevino’s homer gave them a short-lived 1-0 lead in the second, but the A’s, who were dispatched in just 16 pitches over the first two innings, got it back with interest in the third. They kicked it off with Nick Allen, who got around on the lefty’s 92.1-mph fastball and blasted it to left to tie the game. Tyler Nevin tacked on a two-run homer on a dead-red fastball to finish up the damage.
The Yankees again loaded the bases against Wood in the fourth – this time with one out – but Trevino Trevino got on top of a knee-high changeup and grounded it to short for another double play.
They gave it another go in the fifth: With runners on first and second and two outs, Wood clearly looked to be on the ropes. After a quick mound visit, though, manager Mark Kotsay elected to leave his lefty to face Stanton a third time, and the vote of confidence paid off, with Stanton hitting into the force out. Verdugo and Trevino hit back-to-back two-out singles in the sixth, only to have Oswaldo Cabrera ground out against reliever Austin Adams.
Wood managed to improve his ERA by over a run, to 6.59, against the Yankees’ woeful situational hitting. He pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing the one run on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts, and ceded the game to the A’s very respectable bullpen, which came into the day with a 3.15 ERA.
The Yankees again brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the eight, but Verdugo flied out and Miller came in to strike out Trevino.
“Guys are stringing good at bats together, guys are going deep into counts and it’s just how it’s going right now,” Trevino said. “As long as the signs are there of us getting traffic, I think that’s a good sign for us. All we’ve got to do is just get that big hit.”
It’s easy to say, but on Thursday, it was downright impossible to do.
Tonkin finds a home
The Yankees claimed pitcher Michael Tonkin off waivers and designated pitcher McKinley Moore for assignment in a corresponding move. Tonkin has already been DFAed three times this season – twice by the Mets and once by the Twins. In parts of seven seasons, the reliever is 11-8 with a 4.44 ERA.
Berti close
Jon Berti (groin) could begin his rehab assignment as soon as this Sunday “but he’s got a couple of heavy days these next couple of days, so he’s got to get through that first,” Boone said.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
