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Giambi homer lifts Yankees past A's

Apr 15, 2007 - 6:59 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics apparently have a thing for extra-inning contests.

Jason Giambi homered in the top of the 13th inning to lift the Yankees to a 4-3 win over the Athletics.

Oakland and New York battled for 11 innings on Friday night, but that simply wasn't enough on Saturday, as each team's bullpen matched scoreless frames until Giambi finally broke through against lefthander Lenny DiNardo (0-1).

"This was huge," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Especially after we got in the hole 3-0 early. We just completely shut them down after that. We seemed really flat at the beginning but were able to battle back."

The Yankees' slugger drove DiNardo's pitch nearly 400 feet over the wall in right-center field.

"Sometimes in this game it's hard not to get frustrated," said Giambi, who was hitless in his first five at-bats. "Especially when you hit the ball hard and you look up, and it doesn't fall. I had some good at-bats tonight but just got one hit. I'll take it, though. I'm glad it came at the right time."

New York had chances to win the game earlier but ended both the eighth and ninth innings with runners thrown out at second base attempting to steal.

Oakland squandered a strong start from Joe Blanton, who allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings. Four relievers combined to throw 6 1/3 innings, with DiNardo allowing the only earned run and taking the loss.

"It was a battle, an epic battle," DiNardo said. "It was great baseball. Great for the fans, great to watch. Our guys left their hearts out on the field, but we came up short. All we can do is put this one behind us, and get ready for tomorrow."

"We put up some good swings in certain situations, but couldn't get the big hit when we needed it," said Athletics designated hitter Mike Piazza, who went 0-for-5. "Hopefully we can keep putting ourselves in those situations and start stringing some hits together when we need them."

The Yankees got a strong start from rookie Darrell Rasner, who allowed three runs - none earned - in 5 1/3 innings before yielding to the bullpen. Seven relievers combined to pitch 7 2/3 scoreless innings, with Brian Bruney (1-1) throwing the final two frames to earn the win.

"It was a sweet win for us," Bruney said. "It felt good tonight. Our bullpen sucked it up, and our hitters came through in the end. Hopefully we can do the same tomorrow and take the series."

"Our pitching was terrific, and it started with Rasner," Torre said. "We made some errors in the first inning, and they got the runs, but after that he was able to shut them down. It was a good outing for him."

Alex Rodriguez hit his seventh homer of the season, a solo shot in the top of the seventh to chase Blanton, but missed an opportunity to win the game when he popped out to shortstop with bases loaded to end the 10th inning. He extended his hitting streak to 10 games.