By Morris Phillips
Tyler Clippard, be careful what you ask for. In fact, had Clippard or manager Bob Melvin given deeper thought to allowing the A’s closer to go back out and pitch the ninth inning on Sunday, they probably would have mutually agreed to go with someone else.
But Clippard said he wanted the ball in what had been narrowed to a one-run ball game, and Melvin went along with it.
“It’s hard to ask a guy to do that two days in a row,” Melvin said. “And originally I just had him for that inning. I just wanted to go through the heart of the order with him and if it’s 3-0 then we try to do something different. When he came off the mound, he talked me into going back out there.”
For Clippard and Melvin’s sake, it all worked out. The 30-year old fireballer survived a scare off Johnny Giavotella’s bat with two outs, and the A’s squeaked out a 3-2 win over the Angels that—if you’ve been following the numbers—went against most the precedents the A’s have set for themselves in 2015.
Most confounding are the facts that the A’s are 10 games below .500, currently have the worst record in the American League, but statistically they’re far better than that, having scored 35 more runs than they’ve allowed in the 72 games they’ve played to date.
Quite simply, the A’s have had a bunch of agonizing, narrow defeats, many of them due to defensive issues and a depleted bullpen that expected to have All-Star Sean Doolittle anchoring things, not Clippard.
Of course, Clippard doesn’t see himself as a second fiddle. Just like Doolittle, Clippard was an All-Star last season, making 75 appearances for the Nationals with an excellent ERA of 2.13. Over the last five seasons, Clippard has pitched in more ballgames (397) than any other big league hurler. But outside of 2012, Clippard has been used primarily as a set-up guy, which is far less glamorous or noticeable a role than the guy that’s asked to get the final outs.
Two other statistics should have figured into Melvin’s decision to bring Clippard back out besides the fact that he would be attempting a rare, five-out save, one day after the reliever registered a four-out save against the same team. First, Clippard is a dramatically better pitcher at night than he is in the daytime. This season, the reliever has allowed just one run in appearances at night, compared to eight runs allowed in a similar number of innings pitched during the daytime.
And there’s that little issue Clippard has regarding home runs. The reliever has allowed 60 homers in his big league career, including one to red hot Albert Pujols in the eight inning on Sunday, which wiped out starter Scott Kazmir’s potential shutout and narrowed the A’s 3-0 lead to 3-2. The frequent home runs allowed are probably the main reason Clippard’s been utilized as a set-up guy and not a closer. On Sunday, the four batters Clippard would face in the ninth inning had combined for just nine homers on the season, but make no mistake, that group of Angels’ hitters was looking for a tenth.
So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that with Clippard needing only to get the last out, mighty mite Giavotella stepped to the plate with a runner aboard and launched one towards the left field wall. It goes without saying that the principal character’s minds begin to race.
“I thought it was gone,” Clippard recalled. “I wasn’t happy with the execution for sure.”
Catcher Stephen Vogt had a different vantage point, but the similar bad thoughts, saying “off the bat my mind did not go to good places.”
Only Melvin was calm throughout, saying later that “I thought it was off the end of the bat.”
But the ending turned out to be a good one. Left fielder Sam Fuld retreated to the wall, then turned and took a step in and made the catch to end the ballgame.
Kazmir pickup up the win, and it was well-deserved. The veteran was on top of his game Sunday, throwing his entire repetoire for strikes, and controlling the inside of the plate on critical pitches. The former Angel hadn’t had much success against his ex-teammates, but that changed on Sunday.
“It being my old team and knowing some of the guys on that team, it felt good,” Kazmir said. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”
Brett Lawrie had a full day, first attempting to catch the defense napping and steal third base in the second inning. The bang-bang play inspired a five-minute review which went against Lawrie and the A’s. In the fourth, the third baseman made a highlight catch on the bullpen mound in foul territory as he was falling down. Then Lawrie gave the A’s a 2-0 lead in the sixth with an RBI single.
The A’s have Monday off before opening a series in Arlington against the Rangers. Jesse Chavez will be pitted against 23-year old Chi Chi Gonzalez in the opener.
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