Despite a terrific late rally, the Yankees were unable to erase the 6-0 deficit in the eighth inning.

Bartolo Colon continued his struggles since the All Star break, falling to 8-8 on the season.  He was solid through six innings, but wasn’t able to keep the As from putting up runs.  He ended his night with 6.1 innings pitched, eight hits and five earned runs. Two of those runs coming from runners he left on base when he was taken out in the seventh inning.

Brandon McCarthy
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Brandon McCarthy on the other hand pitched a terrific game.  After earning this win, McCarthy’s record is now 7-6, the first time he has been above .500 all season. Despite his record, he has been pitching great as of late. McCarthy is 6-1 over his last eight starts. He scattered eight hits across 7.2 innings and letting up three runs, all in the eighth inning.

First baseman, Brandon Allen hit a solo homerun in the second.  Then, rookie third baseman, Eric Sogard added another run with his first career homerun in the third. Those two would be the main source of offense for the As tonight. Allen and Sogard combined to go 3-6 with three RBI.

Jorge Posada led off the bottom of the 5th with a double.  However, the Yankees wouldn’t capitalize.  McCarthy was able get out of that jam striking out Russell Martin and Curtis Granderson, leaving Posada and Derek Jeter on base.

With a 2-0 lead in the sixth, Oakland was able to play some A-B-C ball bringing Coco Crisp around the bases to add another run, making the score 3-0. Colon would continue to pitch into the seventh inning where he let up a single and a double putting men on second that third before he was relieved of his duties for the night.

Boon Logan came out of the bullpen to try and stop the bleeding, but was unable to.  He let up a lead off double to the rookie Sogard letting two more runs cross the plate. Those runs gave the As a 5-0 lead in the seventh.

Hector Noesi came in to the game for the eighth inning to keep the game from getting any more out of hand.  However, he wasn’t able to quiet the As bats either. Allen came though again, hitting his second solo shot of the night.

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In the bottom half of the inning, Nick Swisher came though big for the Yankees. With two men on, Swisher would take one of McCarthy’s few mistakes out of the park, and ultimately took McCarthy out of the game.  That shrunk the As lead to 6-3.

Andrew Bailey came in for the save, but the Yankees didn’t let him get it so easily.  Posada led off the inning with a blast that landed past the Yankee bullpen cutting the lead to 6-4.

In the very next at bat, Martin hit a line drive that rolled all the way to the wall landing him on second with a double. Gardner got on base with a chopper to third that Scott Sizemore failed to field, putting the tying run on base with no outs.  Jeter laid down a sac bunt moving the runners to second and third. That gave the MVP candidate, Granderson a chance to win the game with one swing.  He was able to work the count against Bailey drawing a walk.

With the bases loaded, Mark Teixeira popped out to third for the second out, leaving the game on the bat of Robinson Cano.  Cano drew the eight pitch walk, giving Cano his first RBI of the night, 88th of the season, bringing the game within one run.  Swisher came up to bat and sent a pitch way back in center field, but he came up just feet short giving Bailey his 17th save of the year.

With that loss the Yankees fall to the As for the first time this season. Tomorrow they face the As again in game two of this three game home series. You can catch all your Yankee action on 104.5 “The Team” ESPN Radio!

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