WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Not an off day nor a change in time zones could cool off the Yankees offense.
And while playing in a minor league park did not necessarily hurt, it also was not the main factor behind another big night.
The Yankees beat up on old friend Luis Severino in the first inning before he got hurt, then continued to add on the rest of the way while cruising to their fifth straight win, 8-2 over the Athletics on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 12,254 at Sutter Health Park.
Paul Goldschmidt, Ryan McMahon and Ben Rice all homered — Goldschmidt’s a three-run shot off Severino that keyed the first-inning attack — as the Yankees (35-22) stayed hot after outscoring the Royals 26-4 during their sweep in Kansas City earlier this week.
Carlos Rodón, pitching for the first time in over a week, grinded through six innings but allowed just one run — a solo homer to Nick Kurtz in the bottom of the first — while navigating some early traffic from the Athletics (27-30). The left-hander finished strong, retiring the final seven batters he faced while becoming the eighth straight Yankees starter to allow two runs or fewer.
After a 16-game stretch in which the Yankees only scored seven runs in a game one time, they have now scored seven or more in three straight games, once again getting contributions from all parts of the lineup.
The Yankees had clobbered Severino here last year before he kept them in check in The Bronx in April. But back in the Triple-A stadium that Severino has expressed his frustrations with, the Yankees got to him again in his first and only inning before he left the game with what the A’s called “right arm soreness.”
The rally got started when Rice reached on an error, then took second base on a balk. Severino fell behind 3-0 to Aaron Judge, who had the green light and roped a hard ground ball up the middle to score Rice for the 1-0 lead.
After Cody Bellinger followed with a single of his own, Goldschmidt came up with two outs and, on a 1-2 pitch, crushed a sweeper over the left-field wall for a three-run homer.
The veteran first baseman, starting for the eighth straight game to help give the Yankees some better balance in their lineup, has just kept hitting with the increased playing time. He had largely been relegated to starting against lefties earlier this season, but is now facing righties, too, and finding success.
Over his last 23 games, Goldschmidt is hitting .304 (24-for-79) with a .952 OPS. He is also batting 7-for-20 (.350) with 14 RBIs with runners in scoring position this season.
Rodón gave one of those runs back in the bottom of the first. After Kurtz challenged a pitch to get a 1-2 count turned into 2-1, Rodón threw a 93 mph fastball down the pipe and the A’s slugging first baseman crushed it for a solo shot that made it a 4-1 game.
After Severino exited the game after warming up for the top of the second, the Yankees added on against lefty reliever José Suárez, as José Caballero doubled and Rice singled him home for the 5-1 lead.
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In the third, McMahon homered for the second straight game — pulling this one, for a change, off righty Joel Kuhnel. The third baseman, after enduring an 0-for-24 skid earlier this month, is 7-for-25 over his last seven games.
After Judge drove in a run on a groundout to make it 7-1 in the fourth, Rice capped off the scoring in the seventh with his 17th home run of the year — tying Judge for the team lead — and his third hit of the night, falling a triple short of the cycle.
The A’s threatened to stage a rally after Rodón exited, loading the bases off Brent Headrick with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but Fernando Cruz came in to get an inning-ending double play. Cruz has stranded 20 of his 24 inherited runners this season.
