Ineffective Yankees bullpen erases comeback in loss to Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Whatever Aaron Judge did in the month of May was pretty much guaranteed to fall short of what he did in the season’s opening month.

Judge took video game numbers into May, slashing .427/.521/.761 with 10 homers, 32 RBIs and a 1.282 OPS in his first 31 games.

The first seven games this month brought an inevitable downturn — relatively speaking — but, well . . .

Here he goes again.

On Saturday, however, Judge’s efforts were not enough.

Judge hit two solo blasts — his MLB-leading 13th and 14th home runs — and Oswald Peraza hit a two-run shot as the Yankees erased a four-run deficit and took a two-run lead on a scalding-hot Northern California afternoon. But unlike Friday night, when it was only one team (the Yankees) taking advantage of playing in a minor-league ballpark when it came to the long ball — and at times unpredictable winds — the A’s hit their share on Saturday, going deep three times.

The third of those, a three-run shot by Shea Langeliers off Fernando Cruz in the seventh inning, gave the Athletics the lead for good in the Yankees' back-and-forth 11-7 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 12,113 at Sutter Health Park.

“It was a tough day out there,”  centerfielder Trent Grisham said. “A little wind, a high sky. Little bit tough conditions, but we’ve played in them before. I think we have to be a little bit better.”

The pitching, too.

With the Athletics leading 7-6 and two outs in the eighth, Tyler Matzek replaced Ian Hamilton with the bases loaded, allowed all three runners he inherited to score and gave up a run of his own as the Yankees fell behind 11-6. Tyler Soderstrom slashed a two-run single to left on Matzek's first pitch and Langeliers (four hits, five RBIs) added a two-run double over  Grisham's head, a drive he appeared to misjudge.

“The wind picked up a little bit later. It was doing something different at the beginning of the game,” Grisham said.

Judge's 433-foot home run off the batter's eye in centerfield off Justin Sterner and Peraza's two-run drive off the leftfield foul pole on a 1-and-2 sweeper were the highlights of a five-run seventh that gave the Yankees (22-17), who had trailed 4-0 after three innings, a 6-4 lead. Austin Wells and Oswaldo Cabrera also had sacrifice flies in the inning. Sterner, charged with all five runs, entered the game having not allowed a run in 18 2/3 innings.

But Cruz, terrific during the first month-plus, allowed a one-out single by Brent Rooker, a soft liner that leftfielder Jasson Dominguez didn’t seem to get a good read on off the bat. Soderstrom followed with a double to center that Grisham was unable to catch up with just shy of the centerfield wall. Langeliers then hammered a 1-and-1 splitter, Cruz’s best strikeout pitch, to center for a 7-6 lead.

“I left my split a little bit up in the zone,” said Cruz, victimized for just his second homer of the season. “He went down and got it.”

He added, “I thought it was a fly ball,” a familiar lament for multiple pitchers who took the mound on a cloudless 88-degree day in which the wind blew mostly out. “But,” he added, “it’s the same for everybody.”

After the Yankees put two on with one out in the eighth, A’s manager Mark Kotsay took no chances, calling on all-world closer Mason Miller for a five-out save. Miller, who entered the game having struck out 26 of 55 (47.3%) of the batters he had faced, struck out pinch hitter Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt on eight pitches to end the threat. The bottom of the eighth made the ninth a non-save situation (Grisham tripled and scored on Judge's groundout in the inning).

Carlos Rodon, 3-0 with a 0.70 ERA in his previous four starts, had dominant stuff at times over six innings in which he recorded a season-high 10 strikeouts. But unlike in his previous four starts, Rodon could not avoid the big mistake, allowing a solo homer by Luis Urias in the second and a three-run shot by Rooker in the third on a 1-and-0 slider Rodon said was “supposed to be away.” That made it 4-0.

“I thought we swung the bats well,” said Rodon, who had allowed a total of one homer  in his four previous starts. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold on. As a group, we needed to throw the ball better, including myself.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.