Vidal Nuno bad at the baseballs.
Vidal Nuno's road starts of late have ranged from okay to decent and gave a sense of hope that he would pitch well today in Oakland. Those hopes were quickly dashed. Nuno gave up three runs in the first inning and three more in the second. After that, the Yankees were never really in the game and the Athletics came away with a 10-5 win in the series finale.
The Athletics picked up a couple runs in the first inning. Coco Crisp and Craig Gentry led off the game for the A's with back-to-back singles. After Nuno struck out Yoenis Cespedes, Derek Norris took a ball over the left field wall for a three-run home run.
An inning later, the A's added even more. With one out in the inning, Kyle Blanks and Nick Punto hit two straight singles. This time it was Crisp who brought the two runners home with three-run home run. That made it 6-0 Oakland.
After putting two on in the bottom of the fourth, Nuno's day was done. He went just three innings, allowing eight runs on eight hits and a walk. He was bad.
Jose Ramirez came in for Nuno and he had some problems with control. He walked Crisp to load the bases. Gentry then came up. A pitch got away from Ramirez and hit Gentry on the head. It looked a bit scary for a second, but Gentry got up and was able to remain in the game. In addition to putting Gentry on base, the hit by pitch also scored a run. After that, Ramirez allowed a single to Cespedes that scored two more runs. Ramirez then got two outs when Jed Lowrie lined into a double play. Josh Donaldson added more when he managed to just sneak a slow roller through the infield. That scored another run and made it 10-0.
In the top of the sixth, the Yankees finally got on the board. Derek Jeter reached when he hit a one-out double. Jeter moved to third when Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out and scored when Mark Teixeira doubled. That cut the A's lead to a paltry nine runs.
An inning later, the Yankees started chipping away when Carlos Beltran led off the inning with a home run. Ichiro Suzuki followed that with a single. After Yangervis Solarte struck out, Kelly Johnson and Brett Gardner drew two straight walks to load the bases. Jeter then hit a long fly out that was enough to score Ichiro. Ellsbury grounded out to end the innning, but the score was now 10-3.
Following Ramirez's inning, the Athletics didn't get much else going offenseively. Shawn Kelley, Adam Warren and Matt Thornton all had solid, scoreless stints out of the bullpen.
In the ninth inning, Gardner hit a two-run home run to further chip into the A's lead. The Yankees then threatened to add more, forcing the A's to remove Jim Johnson. Luke Gregerson came in and quickly sealed a 10-5 Athletics win. The Yankees made it interesting at the end, but on the whole, it was a bad day.
After an off-day tomorrow, the Yankees will return home to take on the Blue Jays in a series starting Tuesday.