Photo credit: @Athletics

By Matthew Harrington

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland A’s offense still thinks the All-Star break is ongoing. That’d be the only explanation for the A’s 5-1 loss to the Giants at home in round two of the Bay Bridge Series.

Rookie Dereck Rodriguez (5-1, 2.72 ERA) stymied the A’s hitters to just one run on three hits over 6 1/3 innings, while home runs from fellow rookie Ryder Jones and Pablo Sandoval handed starter Edwin Jackson (1-2, 2.93) the loss. Mark Canha, the hero of Saturday’s tilt at AT&T Park, knocked in the lone run for the Green and Gold.

Two of the three A’s hits of Pudge’s kid came in the top of the second. Khris Davis hit a double and scored on Canha’s sacrifice and Dustin Fowler also singled in the inning. Rodriguez struck out five batters and walked none to tie the season series at two games apiece.

Jackson pitched well, and on most nights the potent A’s offense would back his outing. He held a 1-0 lead into the fourth, and was no-hitting the Giants before Andrew McCutchen broke up the no-no with a one-out double. After Brandon Crawford pushed McCutchen to third, Buster Posey singled him in for the two-out RBI and a tie game.

San Francisco took the lead in the next inning after Ryder Jones took a Jackson offering off the foul pole in right field for a solo homer. Sandoval tagged Jackson with another solo blast in the top of the seventh to send the righty to the showers down 3-1.

The Giants tacked a pair of runs off the A’s bullpen in the top of the eighth after former Giant Yusmeiro Petit allowed back-to-back singles to open the inning. He would the game with a runner on third, two out and a run in on a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly. Ryan Butcher would yield an RBI single to Brandon Crawford to close the book on Petit with two earned runs. The bullpen struggles further stoke the fire of a rumored trade between the A’s and Mets for closer Jeurys Familia.

The Giants’ bullpen, minus a comeback liner that bounced off Mark Melancon’s foot, cruised with relatively little incident. Reyes Moronta, Melancon and Tony Watson combined for one hit on 2 2/3 innings of work to finish out the game.

The Bridge Trophy will now come down to the winner of Sunday’s game, thanks to a bizarre tie-breaking criterium. Both teams are tied at two wins apiece, meaning regardless of who wins Saturday’s contest, Sunday’s winner would take home the hardware. In the event of a series split, the winner of the final game gets the trophy.

Oakland feels confident for Saturday’s matchup, a showdown between Johnny Cueto and Sean Manaea, but may be trailing the series 3-2 with Saturday’s Madison Bumgarner and Brett Anderson match-up at 6:05 pm PDT.