{"id":95671,"date":"2026-04-09T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=95671"},"modified":"2026-04-10T17:51:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:51:54","slug":"athletics-notes-ny-yankees-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=95671","title":{"rendered":"Athletics Notes: NY Yankees Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-88564\" src=\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"492\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png 492w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics-400x267.png 400w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics-70x47.png 70w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics-150x100.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 492px) 100vw, 492px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n<p>Winning a series against Houston wasn\u2019t a fluke, and now the Yankees know it too.<\/p>\n<p>The Athletics used good starting pitching, and small-ball to take 2-of-3 in the Bronx and look to continue winning 40-minutes down the pike versus the Mets over the weekend.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This could have easily been a sweep as the A\u2019s lost the opener but were leading 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning.<\/p>\n<p>The Athletics had their work cut out for them facing right-hander Cam Schlittler as he has had a solid start to his season. He entered the series opener, having not given up a run, with a 2-0 record, but it only took until the third inning to break through on him.<\/p>\n<p>Max Muncy is pounding the baseball and he started things off with a single and Jeff McNeil followed with a hit of his own. Kurtz hit a two run double over 115 MPH off of the bat to give the A\u2019s a 2-0 lead, but it took small-ball to get there.<\/p>\n<p>Manager Mark Kotsay had Denzel Clarke sacrifice-bunt Muncy and McNeil into scoring position before Kurtz\u2019 crushing hit, and Soderstrom followed with his own double to extend the lead to 3-0.<\/p>\n<p>A\u2019s starter Aaron Civale held the Yankees to a solo-home run in five innings but reliever Mark Leiter Jr. melted down late and allowed four runs in the eighth. After three consecutive singles Amed Rosario hit his second bomb of the game and New York won the opener 5-3.<\/p>\n<p>The team turned the series around Wednesday with a 3-2 victory and they went small-ball again to do so. A\u2019s starter Luis Severino got off to a rough start sending eight to the plate in the first inning and allowing three singles to start the game.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Springs Sets the Tone as A\u2019s Win Back to Back Series\" width=\"520\" height=\"293\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MIZUXJKH20Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He had his usual issues with free-passes and walked three Yankees on four pitches the first time through the lineup. He allowed only two earned runs and the runs held up as the Athletics tied it up in the fourth inning on a rally of their own.<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence Butler and Muncy both hit two out singles over 103 off the bat and McNeil made it a 2-2 tie with the team&#8217;s third consecutive single. It was McNeil\u2019s birthday and he continued his habit of big days at the plate and is 8-for-16 on his special day. For that matter McNeil has been a menace to the Yankees, batting over .370 for a career, with over 40 hits to his credit against pinstripes.<\/p>\n<p>The A\u2019s broke the tie in the ninth inning when Kurtz singled and Shea Langeliers doubled to put runners at second and third with nobody out. Brent Rooker then hit a sacrifice fly deep to center field to score the winning run and win 3-2. Reliever Elvis Alvarado (2-0, 7.50 ERA), only went 2\/3 of an inning but these were the important outs and he won his second game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The finale was an epic pitcher\u2019s duel with left-hander Jeffrey Springs starting for the Athletics versus fellow-leftie Ryan Weathers. Weathers (0-1, 2.81 ERA) went a full eight innings, scattered seven hits, struck out seven and didn\u2019t walk anyone but took the loss.<\/p>\n<p>Springs (2-0,1.47 ERA) did him one better going seven innings of one-hit baseball and allowing just two walks while striking out six. He was never really threatened and at one point retired eleven straight Yankees.<\/p>\n<p>The hero was Max Muncy again, as he tripled to start the seventh inning and Tyler Soderstrom had an RBI-single to seal the game. Kotsay continued to use the small-ball mantra and sent Sodie to second base moving him into scoring position. Now he didn\u2019t score but it accentuates that Kotsay has evolved from relying only on the longball.<\/p>\n<p>On a bad note, the A\u2019s lost DH Brent Rooker for an extended amount of time when he injured his right-side on a hard swing in the first inning of the finale. The team is promoting second baseman Zack Gelof who has 10 doubles and 12 home runs and is batting .366 at AAA Las Vegas and it\u2019s a hope that Muncy will see time in Rooker\u2019s spot in the batting order.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the contact from Muncy, hit or out, has been 100 plus MPH off the bat and he is now batting .319 on the year. More opportunities will present themselves batting third or fourth in the order.<\/p>\n<p>Next up: JT Ginn (0-0, 5.14 era) vs Clay Holmes (2-0, 1.42 era)<br \/>\nApril 10, 2026 4:10pm CITI Field Queens, NY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tim Byrnes Winning a series against Houston wasn\u2019t a fluke, and now the Yankees know it too. The Athletics used good starting pitching, and small-ball to take 2-of-3 in the Bronx and look to continue winning 40-minutes down the pike versus the Mets over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11059],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95677,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95671\/revisions\/95677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}