OAKLAND, Calif. — Javier Vazquez’ best outing of the neophyte season wasn’t dominant. And his velocity is still several miles per hour short. Nevertheless, the veteran right-hander no longer can be crucified by Yankees fans for not having a win in his second tour in pinstripes.
Working with an early three-run advantage that swelled to a half-dozen in the fifth on Alex Rodriguez’ monstrous three-run homer, Vazquez posted the win in a 7-3 victory over the A’s that was witnessed by an embarrassing small crowd of 19,849 at the Coliseum.
Vazquez, who was 0-2 with a beefy 9.82 ERA in two starts, won for the first time as a Yankee since he blanked the Royals across seven innings on Sept. 15, 2004. His ERA fell to 8.27.
“Obviously, the first two games were tough, I can’t hide that, but it’s early in the season there are a lot of games to be played,” Vazquez said.
In 5Ðinnings, Vazquez gave up three runs, six hits, walked three and fanned three. His fastball, which was in the 93-94 mph range last year, never got above 91 mph and was consistently measured in the high 80s.
Nevertheless, Vazquez said he was encouraged by his mechanics improving.
“My mechanics are off, especially with the fastball,” Vazquez said. “I am trying to rush it a bit, but this was improvement over the first two games.”
Rodriguez’s three-run homer off lefty reliever Craig Breslow was the 585th of his career and left him one shy of tying Frank Robinson for seventh on the all-time list.
“I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” Rodriguez said of the long homer that reached the first level of seats far beyond the 388-foot mark in left-center.
The victory was the fifth straight for the 10-3 Yankees. A split of the next two games will give the Bombers their fifth series victory to start the season. The last time the Yankees opened a season by wining the initial five series was 1926.
Vazquez was chased in the sixth after Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson failed to get together on Kevin Kouzmanoff’ one-out pop to center that fell for a single and Kurt Suzuki swatted a 0-2 fastball clocked at 90 mph over the left-field wall. That reduced the Yankees’ bulge to 6-3 and forced manager Joe Girardi to call for lefty Boone Logan.
“The first homer [to Travis Buck in the fifth] I gave up it was a 3-2 pitch with a 6-0 lead and I didn’t want to walk him,” Vazquez said. “But that pitch [to Suzuki] was just a bad pitch.”
Home plate umpire Ed Rapuano was forced to leave the game in the sixth two batters after taking a Kouzmanoff foul tip off the mask. During the delay, Yankees reliever Alfredo Aceves signed autographs over the wall in the Bombers’ bullpen.
An alert Rapuano was transported by ambulance to Summit Hospital where he underwent CT scan.
Ron Kulpa, who started at second, replaced Rapuano. The game was delayed 13 minutes because Kulpa had to don the plate gear.
A’s starter Gio Gonzalez (1-1) gave up five runs (three in the first after two outs), three hits, walked five and fanned five in 4Ð innings. A’s pitchers issued 10 walks.
Nick Swisher stopped a 0-for-16 slump with a two-run double in the three-run first.
Joba Chamberlain surfaced with two outs in the seventh and the bases loaded after Logan gave up a pair of two-out singles and a walk.
Chamberlain responded by whiffing Kouzmanoff on a filthy 1-2 slider. Chamberlain worked a perfect eighth and recorded two strikeouts on 94-mph fastballs to Suzuki and Eric Chavez.
“It’s one of those things like riding a bike, the more you do it, the more comfortable you feel,” said Chamberlain, who is displaying the consistency Girardi is looking for in a late-inning reliever to get games to Mariano Rivera.
Derek Jeter had at least one hit in each of the first 11 games he played in but went 0-for-5 in a ballpark he started the night hitting .366 (86-for-235).
Robinson Cano drew three walks to tie a career high. The last time the free-swinger walked three times was June 14, 2008 at Houston.
Armed with a 7-3 advantage to start the ninth, Damaso Marte was hooked after walking the leadoff hitter in the ninth. Rivera surfaced to strike out Cliff Pennington and induce Gabe Gross to hit into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.