By Morris Phillips

An encouraging spring training plus a mostly healthy roster led to this general consensus for the A’s entering 2015: significantly less offense and starting pitching, slightly better defense and a bullpen similar to what they had last season, but in no way could they hope for the same, lofty production from this group that they got from last year’s group.

After a rollercoaster of a first week in which the A’s mixed in three dominating wins with four disappointing losses, the picture is a little clearer.  The A’s offense—currently the second most productive in baseball with 43 runs scored—hasn’t lost a step, and the starting pitching—with three new faces in the rotation—has been just as impressive.

That leaves manager Bob Melvin needing his bullpen and defense to pick it up or games like Sunday’s 8-7 loss to the Mariners in 10 innings could take more from the club than just a game in the loss column.

“We still feel like we have the right pieces down there,” Melvin said after Tyler Clippard allowed a game-winning home run to Nelson Cruz, right after the A’s rallied from four runs down in the ninth.  “When your closer is out, and you have to move everybody back, it’s a different compliment.  We did give up some runs, we’re better than that.”

If the season-opening home stand was a ride than Sunday’s game was the dramatic finish, with both teams seizing control only to lose it.  First the A’s got the best of King Felix Hernandez in what may have been his rockiest outing in Oakland in the last seven seasons, only to see the Mariners disturb Jesse Hahn’s solid pitching performance in the middle innings.  When the A’s rallied off closer Fernando Rodney in the ninth, they appeared to be in the driver’s seat only to see Cruz get the last laugh.

With a similar rally and win on Saturday, also featuring Cruz, the Mariners gained significant momentum in what appears to be a wide-open AL West race.  And that momentum was gained courtesy of the A’s shortcomings, squandering two, terrific late-game rallies.

“It’s awfully demoralizing to come all the way back and lose the game, but that attribute needs to be there all the time.  And it is,” Melvin said.

The A’s dented Hernandez with three hits in the second inning, only to see the rally fizzle.  But in the fourth, they were on the Seattle ace again, this time with four hits and three runs.  Billy Butler started it with a double—one of his three hits—and Josh Reddick, making his season debut, finished the rally with a RBI single that scored Stephen Vogt.

Hernandez would pitch one more inning, then depart for precautionary reasons due to a tight quad muscle.  At that point, the A’s were looking good and in line to hand Hernandez his first loss at the Coliseum since 2009.

But Oakland starter Jesse Hahn, after opening by retiring the first 12 hitters he faced, fell into trouble in the sixth.   Had Reddick come up with a catch of Robinson Cano’s liner, Hahn could have escaped allowing just one run.  But Reddick didn’t make the catch, and Hahn was done two batters later, all of sudden trailing 4-3.

Marcus Semien also committed a throwing error in the fifth, giving the A’s nine errors in seven games.

NOTES: Butler failed to hit at least 15 home runs in a season for the first time in six seasons, which hastened his departure from Kansas City even as the Royals blossomed despite him, becoming league champions for the first time since 1985.  But Butler appears to be fashioning a bounce back season with the A’s hitting .407 in the season’s first week guaranteeing his moniker, “Country Breakfast” will soon be common A’s fan’s knowledge.  One issue could be the big man’s base running as he was thrown out at the plate trying to score the A’s initial run in the second inning.