A big first inning was more than the Oakland Athletics and Paul Blackburn could overcome in a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees Tuesday night.
Oakland wasn’t able to scratch a run across in Monday’s opener until the ninth inning. They started quickly Tuesday. Brent Rooker fell behind 0-2 against Marcus Stroman, but hung in and worked a walk. Seth Brown followed with a sinking line drive to right that Juan Soto was unable to come up with on a diving attempt. As the ball kicked away, Rooker kept right on running and scored to give Paul Blackburn a 1-0 lead.