Ellis drove in the A’s first run with a triple high off the left-field scoreboard, and Kielty hit a solo homer moments later. Dan Johnson added a run-scoring single, and leadoff hitter Kendall chased Leiter with a two-run double.

“That’s just baseball,” Kielty said. “The way we came out today, you can’t explain it. A couple of hits went our way, and it turned into a big game for us.”

The A’s added five more runs in the next two innings against DePaula. Hatteberg hit his seventh homer of the season to cap a four-run second inning — and in the third, Payton hit his 13th homer in 42 games with the A’s.

Haren wasn’t sharp, needing 67 pitches to get through the first three innings, but he kept New York off the scoreboard by stranding eight runners in the first four. He struck out Ruben Sierra with the bases loaded in the third, then left two runners in scoring position in the fourth.

Haren allowed four hits and four walks while striking out six.

“You would think it’s easy to throw with a lead like that,” Haren said. “But sometimes you go out there trying so hard to throw strikes instead of throwing it like you’re supposed to.”

After winning seven times on a 10-game road trip, the A’s finally returned home to find their field chewed up by the Oakland Raiders’ preseason games. The grass underneath the Raiders’ temporary grandstands — roughly extending in a straight line from one foul pole to the other — was yellowed and worn, with large patches of dirt visible in straightaway center.

Notes: Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez flubbed Marco Scutaro’s grounder in the fifth, ending his streak of 61 games without an error. It was the AL’s longest streak by a third baseman since 1998, when Boston’s John Valentin went 65 games. ... DePaula and C Wil Nieves, who replaced Jorge Posada in the sixth, became the 49th and 50th players used by the Yankees this season, tying the franchise record set in 1989.

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