By Morris Phillips

When you’ve lost as many agonizing one-run ballgames as the A’s, it’s likely one will look like this:

Young starter pitches his heart out—doing all he can to change the struggling ballclub’s fortunes—only to lose by the narrowest of margins in a most unlikely fashion.

For the A’s and Chris Bassitt, that occasion was Saturday afternoon at sold-out AT&T Park where Bassitt allowed the game’s first run on Madison Bumgarner’s home run and his team’s offense was missing in action once again in a 2-1 loss.

The A’s have dropped two straight to the Giants, and four of five overall, and the Giants remained red-hot, winners of 10 of 11.  Lately, the trip across the Bay has cost the A’s a lot more than a hefty bridge toll, it’s been a crippler in a win-loss column as well, with San Francisco capturing 15 of the last 18 contests.

The lessons imparted to Bassitt couldn’t be relayed in any tougher fashion.  The 26-year old began  2015 with an opportunity to become a member of major-league rotation for the first time, only to be the odd-man out after spring training.  Then a pair of promotions from AAA proved that Bassitt had what it takes, first as a reliver making five appearances in which opposing batters hit just .135 and then as an emergency starter in place of the ailing Sonny Gray.  Those two starts both resulted in 2-1 losses as Bassitt allowed just three earned runs.  But after those two stints, Bassitt landed back in Nashville.

Bassitt’s third promotion—to replace Jesse Hahn, who landed on the disabled list—was July 11 in Cleveland.  That day, the A’s rallied in the eighth, after Bassitt pitched them into the seventh tied 2-2.  Again, the pitcher acquired from the White Sox in the Jeff Samardzija deal was optioned.

Two weeks later, with Scott Kazmir traded to Houston, Bassitt made the flight west again, only to run into Bumgarner in the third inning.

“It was just an awkward thing where I was like ‘don’t walk him, don’t walk him, don’t walk him’ and I grooved a fastball right down the middle and obviously he can hit a little bit.”

“I’m just trying to hit the ball hard and contribute in anyway we can up there,” Bumgarner said.  “It’s been going pretty good of late, but I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

Bumgarner’s home run came on a 3-2 pitch, one pitch after home plate umpire Joe West failed to ring up the World Series MVP on an offering straddling the strike zone.  It was the ninth home run of Bum’s career and his third this season.  While A’s pitchers have collectively been the worst hitting group since interleague play began in 1997, the Giants offered Bumgarner, the Silver Slugger award winner for pitchers in 2014.

In interleague play, the odds dramatically favor NL teams playing in their home parks and not having to face or produce a designated hitter of their own.  With Bumgarner hitting ninth along with his staff-ace quality pitching, the Giants saw the odds swing even further in their favor on Saturday.

“It just goes to show you how a pitcher can help themselves besides just throwing the ball whether it’s get a bunt down or swinging the bat,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy opined.

If you throw in the Giants’ brillance in close, situational-laden ballgames, a major factor in each of their three World titles, and the fact that the A’s are well on their way to having the worst record in one-run ballgames in the franchise’s Oakland history, this becomes as big a mismatch as anyone could imagine in such a close game.

Minus their All-Star closer Sean Doolittle, and with a league-worst 86 errors, the A’s have dropped 23 of 33 games this season decided by just one run.  As already chronicled early in this story, all three of Bassitt’s losses have been by a 2-1 score.  On Saturday, it wasn’t the pitching or the defense, just Oakland’s inability to dent Bumgarner, set-up man Sergio Romo or closer Santiago Casilla.

“You work him out of the game earlier or hopefully score some runs off of him.” A’s manager Bob Melvin said as an insight to the team’s strategy against Bumgarner.  “We just couldn’t do it early enough or get a big hit off him when we really need to.”

In the ninth, the A’s put themselves in position to tie the game when pinch-hitter Ike Davis drew a two-out walk, and Billy Burns followed with a base hit.  But Casilla struck out the next batter, Marcus Semien on a 3-2 pitch to end the ballgame.

On Sunday, the A’s attempt to avoid the sweep with Kendall Graveman facing former Athletic, Tim Hudson at 1:05pm.  The 40-year old Hudson has wins against every major league team with the exception of his former team.  Huddy has only faced the A’s twice in his 18-year big league career.