NEW YORK — Hero one day, goat the next.
That’s baseball.
That’s life for Yankees reliever Victor Gonzalez.
The Yankees played a Monday day game on Passover and lost to the Athletics 2-0 after Gonzalez entered to pitch the ninth inning of a scoreless affair.
On Sunday, the Mexican left-hander made the pitching fielding play of the season for the final out in Sunday’s win over the Rays when he spun around to knock down a comeback and then ran toward first to pick up the ball and threw for the game-ending out.
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A day later, the A’s ninth began with Abraham Toro reaching on an infield single when Gonzalez fell down chasing a swinging bunt to the third-base side of the mound and had no play.
Next up was Zack Gelof, who worked the count to 2-2 and then blasted a sinker that was left over the plate into the right-center field seats for a two-run, opposite-field homer.
From there, A’s closer Mason Miller struck out Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge in order throwing fastballs that got up to 103 mph and the Yankees were shut out for the fourth time in 23 games this season and second time in three days.
This time, the Yankees wasted a great start from Carlos Rodon, who allowed one hit working seven shutout innings. The left-hander didn’t allowed a hit until two outs in the fifth and then no more while striking out four and walking two.
Rodon threw 53 fastballs in his 92-pitch outing while mixing in cutters (14), sliders (13), changeups (7) and curves (5).
Former Yankee JP Sears started for the A’s and was just as good as Rodon pitching a three-hit shutout over six innings with seven strikeouts and one walk.
The Yankees’ only threat against Sears came in the fifth. Alex Verdugo walked with two outs and Jose Trevino singled to center, but Oswaldo Cabrera flied to center to end the inning.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was wrongly ejected five pitches into the game by plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, who mistakenly reacted to heckling coming from a fan sitting in the first row behind the first-base dugout.
Boone was warned to not say another word after he questioned A’s leadoff hitter Esteury Ruiz being hit on the foot by a pitch.
When a fan responded by yelling at the ump, Wendelstedt immediately ejected Boone, who proceeded to go on a tirade on the field for more than a minute before handing his lineup card to bench coach Brad Ausmus.
NOTABLE
-- Judge had another bad day at the plate going 1-for-5 with two strikeouts and a double-play groundball. He’s 3-for-28 in his last seven games and batting .174 for the season with 31 strikeouts in 104 plate appearances.
-- Gleyber Torres was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, leaving him 6-for-43 in his last 13 games and batting .193 for the season.
LOOKING AHEAD
Tuesday: Athletics at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. RHP Paul Blackburn (2-0, 1.08) vs. RHP Marcus Stroman (1-1, 2.42).
Wednesday: Athletics at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., Amazon Prime. RHP Joe Boyle (1-3, 7.23) vs. RHP Clarke Schmidt (1-0, 3.15).
Thursday: Athletics at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES & MLB Network. LHP Alex Wood (0-2, 7.89) vs. LHP Nestor Cortes (1-1, 3.41).
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.