Jurickson Profar delivered two tiebreaking hits to atone for his role in a double play that was fully reversed, and the visiting Oakland Athletics beat the Yankees, 8-2, on Friday night.
Profar connected in the second for a 1-0 lead and added a two-run double in the sixth for a 4-2 edge. That made up for his flawed footwork as the pivot on a blown double play in the fourth that led to a Yankees run.
Oakland pulled within a half-game of Cleveland for the top American League wild card spot and held its one-game edge over Tampa Bay for the second. The Athletics swept a three-game series against the Yankees in Oakland last week.
The Yankees ended a four-game winning streak hours after placing Gio Urshela on the 10-day injured list, giving the club a record 29 players on the I.L. this season.
C. C. Sabathia was pulled after three innings with a recurrence of his knee problems, and Tommy Kahnle (3-1) allowed three runs in the sixth.
The left-hander Brett Anderson (11-9) pitched two-run ball over six innings for Oakland. He allowed six hits, struck out one and induced 14 groundouts.
The Yankees went ahead by 2-1 after the unusual replay challenge.
Austin Romine hit into an apparent 6-4-3 double play, but replays showed that Profar had pulled his foot off the bag before catching a feed from shortstop Marcus Semien. Profar was flipped by a hard, clean slide from Brett Gardner, and Profar’s throw was shown to be a hair late to first.
The Yankees took the lead when Mike Tauchman grounded into a double play in the next at-bat.
Kahnle blew that advantage two innings later. Seth Brown delivered a pinch-hit R.B.I. double to tie it before Profar’s two-run knock.
Brown added two run-scoring singles after that while Oakland pulled away. Mark Canha hit run-scoring triple off Cory Gearrin in the seventh, and Semien hit his 25th homer to lead off the ninth.
Profar’s homer against Sabathia was his 18th of the season and his second in two games.
Blake Treinen, a struggling former closer, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for Oakland. He struck out two, and Profar made a diving stop and two-hop throw on Romine’s grounder to end the game.