Bronx, NY – Adam Rosales took CC Sabathia's first pitch over the left-field fence and A.J. Griffin did the rest over seven-plus scoreless innings as the Oakland Athletics downed the New York Yankees, 2-0, in the opener of a three-game series.
Griffin (3-2), who allowed 11 earned runs over his previous two outings, limited New York to six hits with one walk and four strikeouts before Sean Doolittle and Grant Balfour finished off the shutout.
Jed Lowrie and Nate Freiman each had three hits while Derek Norris knocked in a run for Oakland, which opened its season-long 10-game road trip with its fourth win in five games.
The A's worked the count on Sabathia all night and knocked the left-handed starter out after six innings. Sabathia (4-3) gave up two runs on eight hits -- seven singles -- and two walks while fanning six in defeat.
"I felt like I had good stuff, they just did a good job of putting good at- bats together and running my pitch count up," Sabathia said.
His first pitch of the game was sent into the left-field seats by Rosales, who sprinted around the bases to celebrate his first career leadoff homer.
Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano made a terrific backhand up the middle and threw out Lowrie by a half-step to strand two runners in the fifth, but the A's tacked on a run in the sixth.
Yoenis Cespedes worked a leadoff walk and raced to third when Josh Donaldson hit one off the top of the right-field wall. Ichiro Suzuki threw out Donaldson trying to stretch his hit into a double, and Norris followed with a run- scoring line drive single to left.
The A's left two runners on again and didn't muster anything against reliever Adam Warren, but Griffin made the lead stand by holding the Yankees without a hit in six chances with runners in scoring position.
"I was just trying to spot my fastball...and keep guys off balance," Griffin said.
Griffin exited after Brett Gardner bunted his way on to lead off the eighth. Doolittle entered and got Cano on a flyout before inducing a 5-4-3 double-play ball off the bat of Vernon Wells.
Doolittle retired the first two hitters in the ninth, and Balfour struck out Eduardo Nunez to pick up his fourth save of the season.
The loss dropped the Yankees to 6-2 on their 10-game homestand.
Game Notes
The Yankees' Joe Girardi was managing his 1,000th career game ... The Yankees fell to 10-2 in games decided by two or fewer runs and dropped to 16-2 when holding their opponents to four or fewer runs ... Gardner and Jayson Nix each had two hits for New York ... The A's are 12-3 with Cespedes in the starting lineup compared to 5-10 when he doesn't start ... Oakland's Seth Smith went 0- for-5 with four strikeouts ... Balfour has converted 22 straight save chances dating back to last season.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.