Yanks Fall to A's, 5-2

     On a night after the Yankees lost an extra-inning affair to the Oakland Athletics, the Pinstripers took the field to face the green & gold for game two of the three game series. On the mound for the A's was Kemdal Graveman, who, outside of Sonny Grey, is their best starter, with an ERA under 3.  Nathan Eovaldi, who may have the best "stuff" on the staff, but always seems to have that one meltdown inning, and tonight was no different. The Yankees still have been unable to put together a well-rounded offensive attack, with their lone brightspot continuing to be Carlos Beltran. Outside of two solo homeruns by Beltran and Gregorious, New York's offensive woes continue.
      The game started out with some promise, seeing Jacoby Elsbury lead off the game with a hit followed by a Starlin Castro walk. But, once again, Yankees left multiple runners on base and ended up scoreless at the end of one. Eovaldi cruised through the first three innings and looked as though he was in complete control of the ball game. In the bottom of the second, Gregorius hit his second homerun of the season on a line drive over the right-field wall, giving the Yankees a one-zero lead. However, the fourth inning was the come-to-be-expected melt down inning for the Yankees right-hander. Allowing two doubles to begin the inning, first to the red hot Billy Burns, who was eventually driven in by the next batter Chris Coghlan. Eovaldi would go on to allow an RBI Single to Josh Reddick, scoring Coghlan. Reddick would eventually score on a sacrifice fly by Stephen Vogt. The inning could've been a lot worse, had it not been for the unbelievable double-play made by Aaron Hicks, launching a 105.5 MPH fastball from left field to throw out Danny Valencia trying to score on a sac fly. That play would end Valencia's night, as he pulled his hamstring sliding into home. Since the designated hitter, Jed Lowery, was the only remaining  middle infielder for the A's, he was forced to give up his DH role and move to second base, forcing the A's to give up their right to a designated hitter and forcing their starting pitcher to hit in the 4-spot  in the batting order. This is the fourth such incident that this is happened for the A's this season
     After the fourth inning, it just looked like the wind was taken out of the sales of the Yankees players. The most recent victim of the Scranton express, Brandon Pinder, got touched up for two more runs in the eighth on a bases loaded Single by Kris Davis, making it 5-1, A's. Carlos Beltran eventually hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull the Yankees within three, 5-2, which ended up being the final score.
     Look for the Yankees and Luis Severino to attempt to improve upon their 5-8 record when they finalize the series against Oakland tomorrow, with first pitch at 7:05 PM.