OAKLAND -- It wouldn’t exactly make up for what happened last October, but Tuesday’s series opener against the Yankees presented the A’s a chance to exact some revenge against the club that ended their 2018 season.

“The first time you play them, you can’t help but think back to the last time you played them,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “There were a bunch of Yankees fans here and it was a raucous crowd.”

• Box score

Homer Bailey wasn’t around for their loss in the 2018 American League Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium, but in the first matchup between the two clubs since, he helped the A’s erase some of the bad taste left from that night with a strong outing in a 6-2 victory at the Coliseum.

The win moved the A’s into a tie for the second AL Wild Card with the Rays.

Bailey stumbled early on as Gary Sanchez took him deep to center for a solo blast just three batters into the game. But as the innings went along, Bailey got stronger.

The Yankees, who entered the night with the best record in baseball and leading the Majors with 6.47 runs per game on the road, were shut down once Bailey ditched the slider in favor of his splitter. The right-hander threw the split on 32 of his 108 pitches, generating swing-and-misses with it seven times, all as the finishing pitch to a strikeout. In turn, after throwing the slider eight times in the first, he only threw it nine times in the following five frames.

A’s first baseman Matt Olson had a pretty good view of Bailey’s split from about 90 feet away, and judging by the hopeless looks on the faces on Yankees hitters throughout the night, he could see the devastation caused by the pitch.

“It looks pretty nasty,” Olson said. “The guys I’ve talked to say it’s pretty good. It looks like a true ‘tumble’ splitter, which is tough to hit. Not many pitchers have the true split, and he was on tonight.”

Since his arrival to the A’s via trade on July 14, Bailey’s splitter has been the pitch to decide his fate in each of his outings. Also working for him last week when he tossed seven scoreless innings against the Giants, Bailey has been able to utilize the pitch to keep hitters off-balance.

“It allows him to pitch up and down,” Melvin said of the splitter. “He can elevate with the fastball and the split comes out of the same plane. He can throw the slider and sinker just enough. When he’s throwing strikes and getting ahead and has that pitch, as we’ve seen since he’s been here, he can be a tough customer.”

Another key for Bailey was getting ahead in the count. He worked an 0-2 count 18 times and did not issue a walk, racking up eight strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

It likely would have been a longer outing for Bailey had it not been for New York’s ability to keep at-bats alive. The Yankees fouled off 33 pitches against Bailey, raising his pitch count to 97 through five innings before a two-out single by Gleyber Torres in the sixth knocked him out of the game at 108.

“The problem with those guys are they just foul off so many balls,” Melvin said. “They make you work and next thing you know, you’re at an uncomfortable pitch count. Even going out for the sixth, I felt his stuff was good, but they made him throw a lot of pitches.”

In the end, he limited the Yankees to one run on seven hits. Bailey has struggled to find success on the road early on with the A’s, posting a 10.54 ERA over three starts. But the Coliseum has been a paradise for him over four outings, now 3-0 with a 2.96 ERA at home.

Bailey was provided plenty of run support, including back-to-back homers by Olson and Mark Canha in the first off Domingo German, marking the 11th time the A’s have gone back-to-back this year.

“Sanchez hits the homer and now we have to answer,” Melvin said. “The Olson homer was huge, then Canha follows it up. You’d like to start out well, especially at home knowing we’re going to play them six times in the next 12 days or whatever it is.”

For Canha, it was his 19th home run of the season. He’s already surpassed his previous career-high of 17, but his impact this season goes beyond his numbers at the plate.

Canha has been the A’s plug-in guy. He filled in at first base early in the year when Olson went on the injured list, then took over the designated hitter spot when Khris Davis went down in May. Canha is now getting regular time in center while Ramon Laureano deals with a stress reaction in his right shin.

Canha hasn’t had time to get adjusted to any one position, yet it hasn’t shown in his play on either side. In addition to his home run, Canha also made a tumbling catch in center that prevented extra bases on a ball lined off the bat of DJ LeMahieu to lead off the game.

“It’s not easy to come in when the opportunity is presented and produce the way he has,” Olson said. “I’ll put Chad Pinder in the same category. These guys don’t get everyday at-bats, but when their name is called, they can do everything. It’s a big testament to the work they put in to stay ready. Those two guys would be everyday starters on a lot of teams.”