Kevin Kernan

Kevin Kernan

MLB

Another Bay Area beatdown has Yankees reeling

OAKLAND , Calif. — One week ago the Mets left the Bay Area dazed and confused after being swept by the first-place Giants.

The Yankees are in the same cross-country funk after losing two of three to the first-place A’s.
Bay Area Baseball has it all over New York.

Look at the records, runs scored and the A’s 10-5 wipeout of the Yankees Sunday at O.co Coliseum.

The A’s have scored 351 runs this season to lead the majors. The Yankees have scored 275, good for 21st. The Mets are 23rd with 269 runs.

The A’s have made the most of their $83 million payroll, that’s for sure.

They Yankees were so confounded that Carlos Beltran simply forgot the outs in the eighth inning. With one out and Brian McCann on first, Beltran hit a shot to shortstop that Jed Lowrie turned into a force at second. Beltran, thinking there were three outs, abandoned first base, and was called out.

That pretty much summed up the lost weekend.

“I thought there were two outs,’’ said Beltran, who homered in the seventh, his first home run since April 22.

A big part of the reason for Sunday’s explosion was the dreadful outing by Vidal Nuno, who simply can’t remain in this Yankees rotation and gave up two three-run home runs the first two innings to Derek Norris and Coco Crisp.

Derek Jeter, playing his final regular-season game here, was impressed by the A’s.

“They’re good, they played us tough,’’ Jeter said. “They have great pitching, a great bullpen and they swing the bats too. They’re a well-rounded team.’’

A young local reporter then phrased a question to Jeter this way: “Is this A’s team up there with some of the A’s teams you played in the early part of the century?’’

Jeter will turn 40 later this month. He noted with a smile: “The early part of the century? You lost me at century.’’

Yes, the Yankees are old, some days like Sunday, they look really old.

The Yankees now come home to play the first-place Blue Jays, who are third in the majors with 334 runs scored.

Can the Yankees’ offense keep up with teams like A’s and Blue Jays?

Does this team have enough offense to contend?

“Oh, I think so,’’ manager Joe Girardi said. “I do, but obviously, we have to go out and show that. We have to prove it. Guys have to hit, But I think the ability is definitely there.’’

Girardi believes in his guys, but his guys had better start producing more runs.

Mark Teixeira leads the Yankees in home runs with 11, but he also has had more than his share of physical issues this season.

Teixeira had to sit out Saturday night’s 5-1 loss to the A’s with a rib cage injury that Teixeira referred to as a muscle spasm. He said he felt fine Sunday, hitting a double in three at-bats.

“They flexed their muscles today and beat us bad,’’ Girardi said of the Yankees ninth loss in 10 games at this obsolete ballpark.

The loss dropped the Yankees 4¹/₂ games back of the Blue Jays in the AL East, but now the Yankees enter the AL East portion of their schedule. They have no more trips out west so this is the time to get their act together versus their own division, beginning Tuesday against the Jays.

They could use one more big bat and clearly, considering Nuno’s day, one more starting pitcher.

The Blue Jays lead the majors with 92 home runs. The A’s are third with 79. The Yankees are 21st with 55.

That does not bode well for the Yankees.

“For the most part I think we’ve played well,’’ Jeter said of the 5-4 trip. “Today was just one of those games.’’

Nuno didn’t help the situation on this sun-splashed day, but so far, the Yankees don’t match up with the power teams.

They don’t score nearly enough runs or hit nearly enough home runs.

That’s a fact.