The New York Yankees had a historic top of the third, sending 18 to the plate while scoring 13 runs on 11 hits and four walks. A's pitchers combined for 74 pitches in the inning, and the Bombers' bats put the game away with that outburst. 

The silver lining in this one was that the A's never gave up. Even after that demoralizing inning and all of a sudden trailing by 10 runs, Tyler Soderstrom beat out a grounder on the infield for a hit in the bottom of the third. They put runners on in the third, fifth and sixth, before breaking through in the seventh.

Brent Rooker crushed a solo home run with one out in the seventh, his eighth of the season. Two batters later, catcher Jonah Heim launched a three-run homer to cut the A's deficit to 13-7. In the midst of this modest comeback attempt, Yankee catcher Austin Wells went lazily after a pop-up behind home that ended up dropping. 

Before that third inning, Jacob Lopez had worked two perfect innings. After the dreadful third inning, A's arms allowed a total of one walk in the sixth that was erased on an inning-ending double play. They racked up five strikeouts in that span.

After the game, we noted the hustle from Soderstrom and the team never giving up, and whether those positive takeaways still matter, even as the expectations for the club have changed. 

"As a young group with expectations, they can obviously put a lot of pressure on themselves. They can have those high expectations, and really let it impact those little things, the effort level. When you get punched in the face and you get knocked down, how are you gonna get up? I think that's the message right now.

"This home stand, we were really punched in the face. We're gonna go on the road, and hopefully this group responds in the facet that they have in the past. Every team faces adversity, it's just how you respond to it. 

"I'm really in a positive mindset, like you said, we still have to remind ourselves that we did a lot right today. Going forward, it's always better to focus on the positive than to harp on the negative." 

After the game, Mark Kotsay said they needed five or six innings from Jacob Lopez on Sunday, and the performance, with the added mental miscue of not covering first, has led to the left-hander being optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. 

That may not be the only move the A's are making, either. Kotsay mentioned that the team would be having discussions on how to improve the roster in certain areas, "which needs to happen. We need to improve. 

"We're always looking at this roster, not just the 26-man roster, but the 40-man roster. So I think these discussions will be productive, and look forward to getting some new faces possibly." 

While Lopez has said that he is on the way to the minor leagues, Michael Kelly would appear to be another likely candidate. When the veteran entered the game in the third inning, he was going in to eat innings and save the bullpen as much as possible. He ended up retiring two batters but allowing six runs on 42 pitches.

Even without the results, the A's would likely look to get a fresh arm for the series in Chicago. 

Finally, while there has been no released diagnosis for the injury to Luis Severino, Kotsay did confirm that this will be an injury that takes a little while.