The New York Yankees could have easily won yet another game against the Oakland Athletics but narrowly lost out on Sunday.
Unlike the previous two games, the Athletics looked held on for a 5-4 win ending the Yankees' seven-game winning streak. Alex Rodriguez, in the ninth, drove a pitch by Grant Balfour to right field but Josh Reddick hauled it with a small leap.
Joe Girardi in his pre-game news conference said, "Who knows what's going to happen today?." It pretty much summed up the feelings of both clubhouses.
On Saturday, the Yankees had beaten the Athletics in a tight finish -- a 14-inning game that saw the Yankees coming from behind to win 10-9.
The game between these two teams has been decided by a mere 1 run seven times.
Both the teams looked a little exhausted after their intensely fought game Saturday. There were 5 errors in all between the teams, two of which were committed by Eduardo Nunez, last game's hero for the Yankees. One of his errors put the go-ahead run aboard in the sixth.
Hiroki Kuroda, who started the game, needed to take up the mantle with the Yankees pitching staff looking a little thin.
Kuroda started off shaky unable to deliver the start the Yankees would have expected. He fell behind 3-0 after a two-run homer in the third by Cliff Pennington. His slider looked pretty ineffective and he walked more than two batters for the first time since June 19.
After rallying with a four-run fourth inning, the Yankees took charge with Nick Swisher's two-run home run, followed by Raul Ibanez's RBI double and a fielder's choice RBI by Nunez which helped them acquire a 4-3 lead.
The Athletics however, tied it in the fifth and took a 5-4 lead in the sixth thanks to an error by Nunez at shortstop that put Josh Donaldson into a scoring position.
The Yankees observed a moment of silence prior to the game for John Cashman - the father of General Manager Brian Cashman, who died at 72 on Saturday after a long battle with cancer.
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