OAKLAND -- Since joining the A’s via trade from the Brewers on May 17, Lucas Erceg has quickly established himself as one of manager Mark Kotsay’s most-trusted relief options in big moments. That confidence stemmed from an impressive scoreless streak that had been building over the month of June.

At some point, Erceg was bound to hit a bump in the road. That finally transpired in Thursday’s 10-4 loss to the Yankees at the Coliseum. Entering in relief of Hogan Harris in the sixth inning with a runner on and one out, Erceg allowed his first earned run since June 5, snapping a streak of nine consecutive appearances and 10 2/3 innings without surrendering one.

“He’s been great all year,” Kotsay said of Erceg. “The kid’s done a great job. [Tuesday] night, he came into that same situation and he was a big reason we won the game. Today, another leverage spot, and it just didn’t go well for him.”

Erceg was entrusted with keeping Oakland’s deficit at one run after Harris had given up a go-ahead two-run homer to Josh Donaldson earlier in the inning. The outing was ominous from the start, as the rookie right-hander fired a pickoff throw to first base that Ryan Noda was unable to catch, allowing Anthony Volpe to take second base.

From there, Erceg went on to hit two batters, walk another and allow a string of RBI hits. Pulled after Harrison Bader’s run-scoring single, Erceg went through an appearance without recording an out for the first time in his young Major League career. The 28-year-old was charged with five runs (four earned) on three hits and one walk in what ended up as an eight-run sixth for New York.

“I wasn’t getting ahead of hitters as well as I wanted to,” Erceg said. “I wasn’t putting hitters away. I hit [Anthony] Rizzo and [Jose] Trevino on a couple of fastballs ahead in the count. The ball got away from me today.

“It’s just one of those days that bad stuff is going to happen and you’re just going to have to put things into perspective. I’m still pitching in the big leagues. I’m still going to keep an open mindset about getting better every day and improving on the little things. I’m just going to keep my head up and keep working.”

For being a rookie, Erceg’s ability to thrive in these types of situations has been remarkable. Prior to Thursday’s hiccup, he had stranded all 12 of his inherited runners, which was tied with Houston’s Seth Martinez for the most inherited runners in the Majors among pitchers with none scoring.

The Yankees were aware of how difficult it was to do what they did against Erceg. In the A’s 2-1 victory on Tuesday night, he inherited a one-run lead from Paul Blackburn in the middle of the sixth and went on to hold New York down over 1 2/3 scoreless frames.

Erceg’s stuff was not much different on Thursday. He still maxed out at 99.9 mph with his sinker. This time, though, the command was off.

“He’s pretty nasty,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Erceg. “We were able to continue to add on and put a big inning on a pretty big arm coming in there.”

Shrugging off a bad outing becomes a little easier for a young pitcher when it is preceded by a stretch of success such as Erceg’s. Should he begin to pile up a string of these, it might be time to panic. For now, he has earned the expectation of getting back in short order.

“If we’re putting together a couple of bad outings, then we’ll have to hit the reset button and look at some things,” Erceg said. “Right now, I’m enjoying every moment and going out there and competing.”