OAKLAND, Calif. —Even before they did their best to pollute the sewage treatment plan disguised as a ballpark called O.co Coliseum, the Yankees’ night started to go south.
Twenty minutes before the first pitch, cleanup hitter Mark Teixeira was scratched due to a rib cage muscle problem toward the back on his left side.
From there it went downhill and ended with a hard-to-look-at 5-1 loss to the Athletics in front of 36,067.
The ugly defeat halted a four-game winning streak, but didn’t cost the Yankees ground in the AL East since the front-running Blue Jays lost to the Orioles. The Yankees and Orioles are tied for second, 3 ½ lengths back.
Between the top and bottom of the fourth, it was noticed that a bank of lights on the roof beyond the left-field seats never came on and the game was delayed for 38 minutes with the A’s leading, 2-1.
Just as the umpires were going to call MLB offices with information that the lights weren’t expected to return, the bulbs started flickering and eventually came on.
Throughout their four-game winning streak the Yankees had received solid pitching, clutch hitting and played clean in the field. None of those components were on display Saturday night.
Hiroki Kuroda (4-5), who was coming off two solid outings, gave up four runs, five hits and walked three in 4 ²/₃ innings.
In the four wins, the Yankees batted .371 (13-for-35) with runners in scoring position. Saturday night, they were 0-for-4 and weren’t able to get Kelly Johnson home from third in the fifth. He doubled to lead off the inning, went to third on a ground out and then was stranded there.
The Yankees also made one error in those four straight wins.
Saturday’s debacle included two passed balls by neophyte catcher John Ryan Murphy in the second inning, when the A’s scored twice.
Kuroda worked a perfect fourth after play was resumed following the power outage, but a leadoff walk to Eric Sogard in the fifth led to two runs and 4-1 deficit.
“The two runs I gave up turned out to be a big moment,’’ Kuroda said.
Kazmir, who held the Yankees to two runs and six hits in 6 ¹/₃ innings at Yankee Stadium on June 3, handcuffed them again. Working on the margins of the plate and rarely in the middle, Kazmir gave up an unearned run and three hits in six innings.
As for the defense, not only did Murphy allow two pitches to get by him — one brought home a run — Johnson, playing third, should have let Coco Crisp’s bunt roll foul in the fifth inning instead of attempting to make a play on what turned into a single.
Considering Teixeira was 11-for-20 with two homers off Kazmir, he was missed. However, Joe Girardi didn’t want to risk losing Teixeira for an extended period.
“When I woke up it was a little tight. I got a lot of treatment and after BP it spasmed up,’’ said Teixeira who went through a complete batting practice session. “Hopefully, it’s a one day thing.’’
The A’s doctor examined Teixeira and said it could be a latissimus muscle or an oblique, but Teixeira said based on previous experiences it wasn’t an oblique.
While there was some confusion exactly what it was, one thing was very clear: the four-game winning streak crashed because the Yankees didn’t do anything that put that stretch together.