Pratt's Instant Replay: Athletics 5, Yankees 4

BOX SCORE

NEW YORK -- The A's pushed the Bronx Bombers to the brink in New York and ended up on the wrong side of the series outcome. They can leave with their heads held high after salvaging the series with a 5-4 win. They took the Yankees to extra innings in both of their losses in the series. At the PlateThe A's plated an early run in the first inning. Stephen Drew led off with a single and Brandon Moss drove a double to the left field wall. Jonny Gomes came up with runners on second and third and drew a walk. That put the slumping Josh Reddick in the oh-so-familiar bases loaded with two outs situation. Reddick was in an 0-for-20 slump entering Sunday and had left 13 runners on base in this series so far. During his bat Hiroki Kuroda threw a wild pitch that bounced into the A's dugout scoring Drew. Reddick ended up flying out to left field. Reddick has been struggling but it is good to see that he is trying to take pitches to the opposite field. He battled in the bases loaded at bat and tried to go with the outside pitch. In his second plate appearance hit hit a sharp ball toward first base that Nick Swisher made a diving stop on. He grounded out with two runners on base in the seventh inning racking up his total of runners stranded in this series to 17. Reddick ended up 0 for 4. The A's jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. They had a little help from first base umpire Larry Vanover who was the villain in last night's game for calling a questionable balk on pitcher Travis Blackley. Josh Donaldson hit a ground ball to short and hustled to first base for a single. It was a close play and Vanover ruled Donaldson safe. Replays showed he was out. Cliff Pennington capitalized on the fortunate turn of events by driving a slider into the seats in right-center field. The Yankees took the lead with a four-run fourth inning. The A's answered back in the fifth. Pennington led off with a single and advanced to second base when Drew drew a walk. They both moved up a base on a wild pitch. Yoenis Cespedes drove in one of them with a broken-bat RBI single to tie the game 4-4. Pennington ended up 3-for-4 with three RBI on the day. Seth Smith struck out looking three times and went 0 for 4. Starting Pitching ReportThe A's had several relievers unavailable and needed A.J. Griffin to work deep into the game. That didn't exactly happen. Griffin left with one out in the fifth inning. After going an Oakland record 6-0 in his first 12 starts, Griffin has struggled in back-to-back outings. Granted, he was facing tough lineups on the road in Detroit and New York. Griffin got into trouble in the fourth inning. The struggles started after Robinson Cano hit a ball to left field that fell in front of Seth Smith. Nick Swisher followed with a two-run homer to right field on a four-seam fastball right down the middle. The Yankees rattled off three more consecutive hits, the third an RBI double by Raul Ibanez who burned the A's with two-homers on Saturday. They took the lead on an RBI groundout. Pennington fielded the ball and thought about going home but got the guaranteed out at first. He allowed four runs on seven hits and an uncharacteristic three walks. He struck out four batters, three of his strikeouts came with Alex Rodriguez at the plate. Bullpen ReportJerry Blevins relieved Griffin who left the game with runners on first and second and one out. The lefty reliever struck out Swisher and Granderson to end the inning. He stayed in the game to start the sixth inning and left with two outs. He only allowed one hit, a single to Ibanez. Ryan Cook relieved Blevins and ended the inning by getting Ichiro Suzuki to ground out. He pitched a scoreless seventh inning and only allowed one hit to Swisher. Sean Doolittle entered the game in the eighth inning seeking redemption after allowing a walk-off home run on Friday. Naturally, the first batter he had to face was Russell Martin who hit the winning homer off him. Doolittle has family and friends in attendance. He walked Martin to start the inning. The Yankees put in pinch runner Chris Dickerson for Martin. He advanced to second base on a throwing error during a pick-off attempt. Doolittle buckled down and struck out Eduardo Nunez, and then got Derek Jeter to ground out with the tying run on second base. Grant Balfour entered in the ninth inning in a huge save opportunity. He pitched a three up, three down inning. Rodriguez just missed hitting a game-tying home run that landed just shy of the fence in right field. He struck out Cano to end the game. In the FieldIn the sixth inning Derek Jeter hit a ball between second and first base that Pennington made a diving stop on. While still on the ground, he corralled the ball and threw it to Moss at first base but he couldn't catch it. Moss had to reach far for the ball but was likely distracted by Jeter as he charged through first base. The play was initially ruled an error on Pennington but later changed to a hit. It seemed like some favorable score keeping for the Yankees' captain. Moss fell victim to another bad throw in the eighth inning when Doolittle attempted a pickoff that got away from Moss. The ball was in the dirt but he should have been able to pick it. The A's made two errors on Sunday, and really should have been charged with a third that was ruled a hit. AttendanceThe Yankees announced an attendance of 43,867. Subway RaceThe green train won again.Up NextThe A's head to Texas for a four-game series against the Rangers. Dan Straily (2-1, 4.13) takes the mound for Oakland and he will be opposed by left-handed pitcher Derek Holland (11-6, 4.42 ERA). The Rangers will start three lefties in the series.