Font ResizeNEW YORK -- Russell Martin led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a homer off Sean Doolittle, and the AL East-leading New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 2-1 Friday night for their sixth straight win.
Brandon Moss hit a towering home run to right field with one out in the ninth inning off Rafael Soriano to spoil a dominant three-hit outing for CC Sabathia to tie it 1-all, stunning the boisterous crowd of 40,759 into silence. It was Soriano’s fourth blown save in 46 chances.
With the win the Yankees have a chance to move two games up on the Baltimore Orioles for the first time since Sept. 2. The Orioles were playing in Boston. The A’s, losers of four of five, were tied with Baltimore for the wild-card lead.
Curtis Granderson had a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and Ichiro Suzuki continued his torrid pace with two more hits -- one getting caught in Jarrod Parker’s jersey.
The Yankees lost four-straight one-run games in Oakland in mid-July that began a summer swoon in which they blew a 10-game division lead. Martin’s second walkoff homer this season gave the Yankees their ninth win in 11 games.
David Robertson (2-7) pitched a perfect 10th for the victory. Doolittle (1-1) pitched the ninth before giving up Martin’s homer on an 0-1 pitch.
Martin threw his helmet almost all the way to first base as he approached home then was engulfed by his teammates as he
Parker was in line for a loss despite matching Sabathia for eight innings. He gave up six hits and struck out seven in his first start at Yankee Stadium.
Sabathia’s performance had become one of the biggest question marks in the Yankees rotation the past several weeks. The big lefty was 0-3 in his last four starts and he gave up leads in each outing. After two stints on the disabled list, his velocity was down but he insisted he was OK. Manager Joe Girardi said Sabathia was struggling with the command of his sinker and changeup.
