Batting practice usually ends long before the first pitch is thrown.
Sunday the A’s were very appreciative Vidal Nuno continued to throw batting practice once the game started.
Three-run homers by Derek Norris in the first inning and Coco Crisp in the second put the Yankees in a shallow grave they never crawled out of and fueled a 10-5 A’s victory that was witnessed by 36,067 at O.co Coliseum, a stadium so bad it makes people pine for Shea Stadium in its final days.
“They hit the ball out of the ballpark and you have to be able to control that,’’ manager Joe Girardi said. “They flexed their muscles and beat us bad.’’
The loss sent the Yankees home with a 5-4 ledger on a three-city tour that started in Kansas City, moved to Seattle and ended against the A’s who have the best record in the American League.
The 6-0 advantage grew to 10-0 after four innings and Nuno was saddled with the beating. In three-plus frames the Frontier League alumnus gave up eight runs and eight hits and is 1-3.
Despite being awful, the lefty doesn’t appear to be in jeopardy of losing his spot in the rotation.
“We haven’t made any changes,’’ said Girardi, who went to the mound in the second inning instead of sending pitching coach Larry Rothschild. “We have to find a way to get it done.’’
Coupled with the Blue Jays beating the Orioles the Yankees slipped 4 ½ lengths back of the AL East leaders and are tied with the O’s for second.
“They got some little hits and one pitch, bang,’’ said Nuno, who couldn’t keep his pedestrian stuff out of the middle of the plate and was punished for it since the homers were hit on misbehaving sliders.
At the start of the trip that had a game in Kansas City rained out the Yankees were 30-29 and six games behind the Blue Jays. That they gained 1½ games is a positive, but …
“I think if you would say before you start a road trip you were going to end up with a positive road trip you would probably say, ‘all right’ but when we were 5-2 and had a chance to have a really good road trip it kind of stings a little bit,’’ Girardi said.
By the time the Yankee bats stirred it was far too late. Derek Jeter doubled and scored in the sixth, Carlos Beltran homered and Jeter plated a run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh and Brett Gardner crushed a two-run homer in the ninth. Until the sixth the Yankees had one runner in scoring position against Jesse Chavez (6-4).
“I wouldn’t call it deflating,’’ Mark Teixeira said. “We played very well on this road trip.’’
Still, 5-2 turned into 5-4 and sends the Yankees into a three-game AL East showdown against the Blue Jays that starts Tuesday in The Bronx on a two-game losing streak.
In Masahiro Tanaka the Yankees have the right arm working Tuesday night but just because there are no in-house candidates to replace Nuno doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be a concern.
Nobody can predict when or if CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda are returning from the disabled list. It’s likely too early to seriously engage in the trade market and the Yankees might not have what others are looking for.
“It’s tough,’’ Teixeira said of the lopsided defeat. “It hasn’t happened much this year. Our pitching has been so good.’’
Sunday, against a team with big biceps, it stunk.