NEW YORK — Before taking the field for the start of a seven-game trip, the Oakland Athletics scratched Kendall Graveman and said he likely is headed to the disabled list along with fellow right-hander Jesse Hahn.
They said first baseman Yonder Alonso, the team RBIs leader, would miss his second straight start because of a sore right wrist.
Oakland, languishing in fourth place of the AL West, responded with one of its better games.
Moved up a day because of Graveman’s sore shoulder, Sean Manaea allowed four hits in seven shutout innings to match Masahiro Tanaka’s brilliant start for New York. Jed Lowrie and Khris Davis had two-out, run-scoring hits off Tyler Clippard in the eighth, Stephen Vogt added a two-run homer against Jonathan Holder in the ninth and the A’s held on for a 4-1 win Friday night.
“Manaea just kept us in the ballgame the whole time, and I knew we’d get something going, and we did, and it was really important,” said No. 9 hitter Adam Rosales, who chased Tanaka with a one-out single in the eighth and the game 0-0.
Rosales had a mark under his right eye from a headfirst slide later in the inning , sustained when he raced from first to third on a wild pickoff throw. Rosales’ face hit the dirt a foot short of the base.
“He’s a tough guy,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He told me it would probably make him look better.”
Melvin said Graveman and Hahn have ailing shoulders — further injuries to add to a long list of them already this season for the low-budget, ever-changing club.
Manaea, who missed three weeks with a strained left shoulder before returning May 15, moved up a day and took Graveman’s place Friday. Right-hander Jharel Cotton, demoted to the minors on May 11, will be recalled from Triple-A Nashville and start Saturday.
Oakland ace Sonny Gray missed the first month with a lat strain, and reliever Sean Doolittle hasn’t pitched since April due to a strained left shoulder.
“It’s happened to basically everybody,” Melvin said, citing Andrew Triggs as the healthy exception. “It doesn’t help things.”
Alonso has been out since he was hit by a pitch from Miami’s Jarlin Garcia on Tuesday. Hahn left his start that night one batter into the third inning because of a triceps strain.
Graveman, Oakland’s opening-day starter, made three outings, went to the DL from April 15-27 with a strained right shoulder, then returned to make five more. He is 2-2 with 3.83 ERA.
“When he threw bullpen, it didn’t feel right and just didn’t want to push it any farther,” Melvin said. “This DL is going to take longer, if indeed he goes on the DL. … Any time this happens for a second, you want to be a little bit more careful with it.”
Melvin expects Alonso to not start Saturday against left-hander CC Sabathia, then return to the lineup Sunday. Alonso has 13 homers and 30 RBIs despite missing last weekend’s four-game series against Boston because of a sore left knee. He hit off a tee Friday.
“We’re treating this kind of like when you roll your ankle, where it gets better by the hour,” Alonso said. “Definitely sensitive, obviously.”
Manaea (3-3) began the game with a team-high 17 free passes and walked Brett Gardner on four pitches leading off. He didn’t walk another and struck out six.
“I just had a different mentality and in my head, I was thinking that these guys weren’t going to hit me at all and I just needed to throw strikes and trust the defense,” Manaea said. “I know I can get these guys out. To me, it was a big mentality switch and just believing in myself and trusting everything.”
Ryan Madson pitched a perfect eighth. New York loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Santiago Casilla before Didi Gregorius hit a sacrifice fly and pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez popped out.
Tanaka fanned Mark Canha in a 10-pitch at-bat leading off the eighth, then was replaced after Rosales’ hit. Clippard threw a pickoff past first baseman Chris Carter for an error that allowed Rosales to reach third, and Rajai Davis hit a two-hopper to third baseman Chase Headley, who threw to the plate in time for Romine to tag Rosales , who slid headfirst again.
Matt Joyce walked on a 3-2 pitch, and Lowrie singled to right as Rajai Davis came home and Joyce took third. It was the eighth hit in nine at-bats for Lowrie, who had seven in a row before grounding out in the sixth.
“Somebody’s got to hit .300,” Khris Davis said of Lowrie, whose average rose to .310.
Khris Davis grounded to Gregorius, who stopped the ball with a slide deep in the hole, and Davis just beat the shortstop’s throw as Joyce scored.
“I could sniff it,” Davis said.
UP NEXT
Sabathia (4-2) pitches Saturday for the Yankees after winning consecutive starts for the first time since June 10 and 16 last year. Cotton, 3-4 with a 5.68 ERA before he was optioned, will be recalled to start for Oakland. He was 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in a pair of minor league starts.
Cotton traveled from Nashville on Friday and arrived at Yankee Stadium after a 90-minute bus ride from LaGuardia Airport. He will be making his first appearance at Yankee Stadium.
A 25-year-old right-hander, Cotton made his big league debut last September and was 2-0 with a 2.15 ERA in five starts.
“Any time you come to the big leagues like he did last year, you have a lot of success, and then teams start to make adjustments to you,” Melvin said.
In the minors, Cotton worked on mixing his pitches and throwing inside, which he thinks may help set up his changeup.
“I think right now I have the confidence to go out there and pitch and help the ballclub,” Cotton said.
