Recap: A's defeat Yankees 2-0 to open series

The game started off with a bang, with Adam Rosales swinging at the first pitch of the game for a solo shot. His first HR of the year, his first Leadoff AB, first Leadoff pitch, first leadoff HR.

From there, it was A's all the way.

In the bottom of the first, the Yankees got the leadoff batter aboard, as Brett Gardner led off with a bloop single that he for some reason did not advance to 2nd on. A Cano soft grounder moved Gardner to 2nd, but Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner struck out to end the threat.

The top of the second saw a 2 out single for Nate Freiman, who went 3-3 on the night, though he would be stranded by Luke Montz.

In the bottom of the 3rd, the A's saw some leather. On a swinging bunt by Jayson Nix, Norris made a stupendous play, hurling the ball at 1B and catching Nix out by a hair. It was a good thing too, Chris Stewart walked, and after a Brett Gardner fly out to Seth Smith, AJ Griffin missed badly on a pitch to Cano. the pitch was supposed to be at the eyes, instead it was right down the middle. Luckily, Cano couldn't handle it, and it turned into a bloop ground rule double down the line, giving the Yankees 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. Vernon Wells, ye of the recently transformed back into a good hitter, came up to the plate, but playing the A's, remembering he was an Angel, Wells popped out. Wells would go 0-4 with 1 K on the night and 4 LOB.

In the top of the 5th, Freiman got to 1st on a single off CC, and after a long flyout to the warning track in dead center from Montz, Rosales got a single to make it 1st and 2nd with 1 Out. After a Smith flyout, Lowrie came up with 2 outs. After battling, Lowrie hit a ball up the middle which was lobbed to the 1B. Lowie was barely out, but the ball was dropped by Overbay, but the UMP called it dropped on the transfer, and the inning was over. The replay? Showed Lowrie safe, in my opinion.

The action came alive though in the 6th inning.

After a leadoff walk, Donaldson hits a line drive off the top of the wall that either completely fooled Ichiro, or completely deeked Donaldson. Donaldson was slow getting to 2nd, and the ball beat Donaldson to 2nd. Donaldson was called out, but the missed tag was obstructed for the Ump. Melvin challenged that a fan interfered with the ball, but a no go, and the A's had a man on 3rd with 1 out. But after being the whipping boy the last few days, on a 3-0 Count, Derek Norris lined a single to left to bring in Cespedes. 2-0 A's.

Freiman would come up and, after a wild pitch that allowed Norris to get to 2nd, would single to make it 1st and 3rd, with Mike Gallego was wary of Ichiro's arm, and held Norris. Montz, who till then had crushed every ball thrown to him to the warning track, hit the first thing on the ground we've seen yet, but it was a soft grounder to 3rd to end the inning.

AJ Griffin would give the A's a much needed shutdown inning in the 6th, and aside from a 2 out double by Nix, would get through the 7th without much effort.

in the 8th, Gardner, on a 3-2 count, bunted for a hit, barely making it to first safe, and that would spell the end of Griffin's day. Griffin ended with 7+ IP, 0 R, 4 K's, 6 H and 1 BB and lowered his ERA to 3.79.

Doolittle came in and made short work of the 8th, getting a flyout from Cano and a GIDP from Vernon Wells. Melvin would leave Doolittle in for the 9th, getting Hafner to K swinging, and Ichiro to ground out on a great play by Adam Rosales at short.

Melvin then brought in Balfour to get the 1 out save, which he did, striking out Nunez to end the game.

A's win, 2-0!