Ted Lilly didn't hit any batters on Friday night. Of course, he didn't hit the strike zone very often either, walking five batters in just two innings as the Oakland A's defeated the Yankees 8-1 for their ninth straight victory. Lilly, who started the game one day after appealing the six-game suspension handed down by Major League Baseball for intentionally throwing at Anaheim's Scott Spiezio last week, surrendered five runs over two innings in his second-shortest start of the season. Whether or not the suspension was weighing on Lilly's mind is unclear, but his performance on Friday was very easy for Yankees Manager Joe Torre to assess.

"Tonight, he was bad. I hate to say it, but it was just a bad outing," Torre said. "It looked like he was avoiding contact. You get to the point where the hitters have seen your pitches and they're not seeing anything that's surprising. He just got in what looked like a very defensive mode, and it cost him. "If he was (distracted), he shouldn't have been," added Torre. "We're at the time of the season where we have to know what our priorities are. I hope that wasn't the problem." Oakland took advantage of a questionable call in the first inning to put the first two runs on the board. With runners on first and second with one out, Jermaine Dye hit a grounder to third base, where Luis Sojo started what looked like a 5-4-3 double play. But first-base umpire Jerry Layne called Dye safe at first, putting runners on the corners with two outs instead of the inning being over. After Lilly walked Olmedo Saenz to load the bases, Miguel Tejada singled to left field to bring two runs in, giving the A's an early 2-0 lead. Lilly, who struggled with his control from the game's first pitch, walked the first two batters in the second. The rookie southpaw almost pitched his way out of it, with a little help from a bizarre call at first base. Johnny Damon tried to bunt the runners over, but Lilly fielded the sacrifice attempt and gunned the lead runner at third base. With Damon on first and Ramon Hernandez at third, Lilly made a pickoff throw to first base. The ball appeared to beat Damon to the bag, but his hand got tangled up in the glove of first baseman Tino Martinez, who dropped the ball into foul territory. As Martinez tried to retrieve the ball, Damon held on to his glove, leading umpire Layne to call Damon out due to interference. But Lilly couldn't close the door, walking Frank Menechino for the second time in two innings to bring Jason Giambi to the plate. Lilly, who had given up just one home run to a left-handed hitter this season, grooved a 1-0 pitch to Giambi which the A's slugger crushed over the right-field fence, giving Oakland a 5-0 lead. "I'm thinking I definitely want to throw a strike right there, and I laid in a lazy slider and it stayed right out in the middle of the plate," said Lilly of the home-run pitch to Giambi. "Especially with a guy like that, I can't afford to do that because he's capable of hitting it out of the park, which he did." "Especially against a club that's playing with as much confidence as this team, you just can't allow them free passes," Torre said. "We kept walking Menechino and, not to take anything away from him, but the guy behind him is pretty good, and you put yourself in a bad situation." Given a five-run cushion, A's starter Cory Lidle cruised through New York's lineup, facing the minimum 15 batters through five innings. The only Yankee to reach base to that point was Martinez, who singled twice off Lidle. But Paul O'Neill hit into a 4-6-3 double play to wipe Martinez off the basepaths to end both the second and fifth innings. "Coming out 5-0, it's a tough game for us when you do that," Torre said. "We're not the kind of club that normally gets runs in big chunks as a rule." Torre didn't send Lilly back for the third, opting to bring Jay Witasick in to start the inning. Witasick picked up where Lilly left off, walking six batters in a season-high 3 2/3 innings of work. "It was just a night where I had a very difficult time finding a rhythm," said Lilly, who fell to 3-5. "I killed our bullpen." Witasick kept Oakland off the scoreboard until the seventh, when Dye made Witasick pay for walking Menechino and Giambi with two outs, mashing a 2-2 offering over the wall in left-center field, giving the A's an 8-0 lead. Oakland scored its eight runs on six hits, but was helped by 11 walks, five by Lilly and six by Witasick. "Witasick did a good job for us," Torre said. "I think he just got a little tired there at the end, with all those walks." Lidle gave his outfielders an easy night in the field, but gave his infield -- second baseman Menechino in particular -- a workout on the diamond. Over eight innings, Lidle struck out four Yankees and allowed just one fly-ball out, the remainder of the putouts coming courtesy of the infield. Menechino was the busiest, collecting 11 assists on the night. "They just came out swinging and scored runs, and we weren't able to do anything tonight," said Martinez. "They're playing well. They got good pitching, and you know they're going to swing the bats and score some runs." Lidle improved to 7-5, allowing one run over eight innings. He gave up four hits and one walk, striking out four. "They're always a tough team to beat," said Lidle of the Yankees. "They got a lot of veteran players who know how to play the game, so to shut them down feels good. Especially for the first game of the series, you know in a three-game series, it gives us the advantage." O'Neill broke up the shutout with a solo home run to lead off the eighth inning, snapping Oakland's scoreless inning streak at 23 frames. During the nine-game winning streak, the A's have a team ERA of 1.33. Randy Choate pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, retiring all seven batters he faced. The Yankees now hold a four-game lead over the idle Boston Red Sox in the AL East. New York sends Sterling Hitchcock to the mound on Saturday to take on Oakland's Erik Hiljus.