Photo credit: @957thegame

By Matthew Harrington

Friday the 13th is an unlucky day by superstition, something the Oakland Athletics can now vouch for after falling to the San Francisco Giants 7-1 at AT&T Park Friday night. After seeing the team MVP exit the game, the bad went to worse. The A’s must have had a black cat or two cross trans-Bay charter on the way to the park after mirroring situations saw the A’s score zero runs and the Giants five.

The A’s loaded the bases with no outs off starter Madison Bumgarner trailing 2-1, but failed to push across a single run after reliever Reyes Moronta punched out Chad Pinder, coaxed an infield lineout from Jonathan Lucroy and pinished off pinch hitter Nick Martini with a bouncer to the sure-handed Brandon Crawford to stymie the threat.

With starter Edwin Jackson lifted for reliever Ryan Dull in the bottom of the innings, the Giants also worked the bases loaded. Reliever Jeremy Bleich enterted the game, making his major league debut after 10 years in the minors. Steven Duggar welcomed him to the bigs with a double down the line in right that scored a pair, then pegged Brandon Belt to reload the bases with Oakland now trailing 4-1.

Former Giant closer Sanitago Casilla replaced Bleich and his infinite ERA, getting Andrew McCutchen out on a sacrifice fly. His wild pitch allowed Duggar to score for 6-1 lead. Buster Posey doubled in a run to add on to the lead.

Oakland starter Edwin Jackson finished his fourth start in as many outings with the A’s by allowing two runs or fewer. He departed the game after six innings with Oakland down 2-1 after he stumbled off the mound in the fourth inning for a run-scoring balk then gave up a Posey RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. He was bolstered briefly by a Chad Pinder solo homer in the top of the fifth of Giants starter Madison Bumgarner, the only run the A’s would score on the night.

Jackson scattered just four hits, while walking three and striking out the one Giant. He was out-dueled ever so slightly by Bumgarner, who allowed three hits, one run and struck out five with his trio of walks. The difference was the pen where Moronta provided the shutdown inning and Sam Dyson pitched two scoreless for San Francisco while Dull, Bleich and Casilla combined for five runs.

Jed Lowrie came out of the game for Oakland, getting pinch hit for by Khris Davis in the sixth inning. He was in a collision with right fielder Stephen Piscotty in the bottom of the third inning. Per the A’s, he exited the game with a leg contusion. It remains to be seen if he’ll appear in Saturday or Sunday’s Bay Bridge series contests.

The A’s will now need to win four of the remaining five contests between the two teams sandwiched around the All-Star break if they want to win the inaugural Bay Bridge series trophy made out of a reclaimed beam from the original Bay Bridge span. Brett Anderson will face Jeff Samardzija, a current trade target of the A’s, in Saturday’s contest. There’s still no word yet on any parade plans for the trophy’s eventual winner.