Yankees' offense erupts again in win over A's

OAKLAND, Calf. — A Yankees offense mostly stagnant in Aaron Judge’s absence erupted for 11 runs Wednesday night, the group’s effort almost completely ignored — appropriately — because Domingo German threw the 24th perfect game in MLB history. 

The offense did it again Thursday afternoon, this time getting the spotlight entirely to itself. 

Boosted by an eight-run sixth inning and racking up all of their 13 hits through six innings, the Yankees blasted the A’s, 10-4, at Oakland Coliseum. 

“I think it was a big momentum boost. I think we needed that,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said of German’s perfect game. “German did his thing, gave us a lot of momentum today.” 

The Yankees (45-36) outscored the A’s (21-62), 21-4, over the last two games after dropping the first game of the series. The Yankees got home runs from Kiner-Falefa and Josh Donaldson (two in the series) before heading to St. Louis for a three-game series with the Cardinals that begins Friday night. 

“I thought the guys were really energetic, almost euphoric,” Aaron Boone said of the high that accompanied the team-wide celebration of German’s historic night, but one that included a quick turnaround with a 12:37 p.m. local start time for Thursday’s game. “Thought the energy was really good early on.” 

Each starting position player except catcher Jose Trevino had at least one hit, with Harrison Bader’s three leading the way. Kiner-Falefa had a team-best three RBIs, and Gleyber Torres and the resurgent Anthony Volpe added two hits apiece. 

“Momentum is a really large part of this game, especially on offense,” Bader said. “Putting together good runs like that in different ways — playing small ball, shooting the ball up the middle, making the pitcher work, making loud outs, all of those things are kind of contributing to having a really big inning.” 

The Yankees, who actually trailed 3-2 after three innings, sent 13 batters to the plate in the big inning Bader referenced, the eight-run sixth that turned the one-run deficit into a 10-3 lead. 

Bader jumpstarted it with a single and Donaldson, who homered Tuesday night against the team he debuted with in 2010, followed with his eighth homer of the season, a 472-foot moonshot to left-center for a 4-3 lead. Torres contributed a two-run single in the inning and Stanton added a two-run double. Bader and Kiner-Falefa, who hit his fifth homer of the season in the second to tie it at 1, also had run-scoring singles in the inning that turned the contest into a laugher.

“Just some really good, heavy at-bats in that inning,” said Boone, whose team, after Tuesday’s 2-1 loss, fell to 8-11 without Judge, scoring just 57 runs in that stretch. “That was really good to see.” 

As for Thursday’s starter, Clarke Schmidt had the unenviable task of following up German, who only retired all 27 batters he faced the night before in recording the franchise’s fourth perfect game. 

The righthander, with a 2.19 ERA in his previous seven starts, didn’t pitch to that level Thursday, but with the offense’s performance, he didn’t have to. Schmidt (3-6, 4.37) allowed three runs, five hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings in which he struck out three. 

“I told him [German] after I came out, it’s tough to follow up,” Schmidt said with a smile. “He’s so fun to be around, he’s a great teammate. I couldn’t be happier for [him].” 

Schmidt allowed a leadoff single to Tony Kemp, the A’s first batter, immediately ending any drama about the possibility of back-to-back perfect games (or no-hitters). 

“Me and Trevi [Trevino] made the joke today when we were going over the game plan, let’s try to go back-to-back on the perfect game,” Schmidt said, smiling again. “It ended quickly … it’s tough to follow up a perfect game but good to come away with a win.”