NEW YORK (AP) – Jed Lowrie tied his career high with four hits, doubling in the 11th inning and scoring the go-ahead run on Mark Canha’s single to lead the Oakland Athletics over the New York Yankees 3-2 on Tuesday night.
After two more scoreless innings from the Yankees’ dynamic duo of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, rookie Johnny Barbato (1-1) pitched a perfect 10th.
Lowrie doubled into the right-field corner against Barbato with one out in the 11th, then took third on a groundout by Khris Davis, who had struck out in his previous three at-bats. Canha singled off the glove of a diving Didi Gregorius at shortstop and into left field for his second RBI this season.
Fernando Rodriguez (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings, and Ryan Madson got three straight outs for his fifth save in five chances.
Oakland has won three straight wins following a four-game losing streak.
The A’s are 5-3 in one-run games. They did not get their fifth one-run victory last year until June 15.
New York starter Michael Pineda allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings, struck out seven and walked one. Oakland’s Eric Surkamp pitched 5 2/3 innings, one shy of his big league high, and also gave up two runs and seven hits.
Carlos Beltran doubled in the first and scored on Alex Rodriguez’s single. Marcus Semien tied the score in the second with an RBI single on a 3-0 pitch.
Beltran’s sacrifice fly put the Yankees ahead 2-1 in the fifth – an inning that could have been bigger had Gregorius not gotten caught stealing after Surkamp trapped him off first following his leadoff single.
Danny Valencia tripled off the glove of diving left fielder Brett Gardner leading off the sixth and scored on Lowrie’s one-out single through the drawn-in infield. Marc Rzepczynski entered with two on and two outs in the bottom half, started Gardner with a wild pitch that advanced both runners and retired him on a lineout to first.
Chase Headley singled off the glove of a diving Semien, who was shifted to the right side, leading off the ninth, but Gregorius fouled off a pair of bunts before flying out and pinch-runner Jacoby Ellsbury was caught stealing by catcher Stephen Vogt. Ellsbury did not start against the left-hander after four defensive mistakes in center field during the first two weeks of the season.
Using a 98 mph fastball and devastating curve, Betances worked around his first two-hit inning of the year in the eighth to strike out two more batters. Ten of his last 11 outs and 16 of his last 18 are on Ks.
Miller struck out Canha, who was pinch hitting, on a slider leading off the ninth, then got a pair of soft groundouts.
Betances and Miller have combined to strike out 30 of 48 batters they’ve faced this season.GREAT GRABS
Valencia made a diving backhand catch on Aaron Hicks’ sixth-inning liner to third. Gregorius went deep into the shortstop hole to snag a pair of grounders in the bottom half and threw out Semien and pinch-hitter Coco Crisp, whose hitless streak reached 15 at-bats.
TRYING TO GET BACK
Nick Swisher is 6 for 18 with one homer and three RBIs for the Yankees’ Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre farm team.REVISION
What originally was scored as a fourth-inning single for Starlin Castro at Detroit on April 9 was changed by the Elias Sports Bureau on Tuesday to an error for right fielder J.D. Martinez, who dropped the line drive.TRAINER’S ROOM
Athletics: RHP Henderson Alvarez, recovering from right shoulder surgery last July 28, is to throw three innings or about 45 pitches for Class A Stockton in an injury rehabilitation assignment Wednesday.UP NEXT
New York’s Nathan Eovaldi (0-1) is scheduled to start Wednesday’s middle game of the series against Kendall Graveman (0-1).