Photo credit: mlb.com

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s started the six-game road trip on a winning note as they downed the hapless Baltimore Orioles 3-2 at Oriole Park on Tuesday. The Orioles–who have traded away many of their stars–gave the A’s a tussle, but the A’s produced enough offense to record the win.

A’s starter, Mike Fiers, gave the team six innings of four-hit pitching. He made just one mistake when O’s shortstop Jonathan Villar hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.

O’s starter, Alex Cobb, went only two innings as he had a flare-up of a blister on his pitching hand and as unable to continue.

The O’s brought in Mike Wright to pitch the third inning. The A’s put three on the board on the strength of three hits and two walks. The rally started when A’s catcher reached on a walk. Lucroy went to second on a groundout off the bat of Ramon Laureano. Third baseman Matt Chapman doubled to right field to drive in Lucroy. Jed Lowrie walked to put two men on with one out.  A’s DH Khris Davis singled to drive in Chapman with the second run of the inning. Lowrie stopped at second. Wright struck out Matt Olson for the second out. The next hitter, Stephen Piscotty, singled to drive in Lowrie to give the A’s a 3-0 lead. Piscotty extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

The O’s got on the board when Villar homered off Fiers in the bottom of the sixth.

A’s manager Bob Melvin turned the game over to his bullpen for the last three innings of the game. Fernando Rodney pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Melvin called on Lou Trivino to pitch the eighth. The O’s rallied to score a run and make it a 3-2 contest. O’s second baseman Breyvic Valera singled to get things going for Baltimore. Trivino retired Corban Joseph for the first out. He struck out Cedric Mullins for out number two. Valera got into scoring position when he successfully stole second. Jonathan Villar knocked in his second run of the night with a single. Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini line a shot to center that looked like it would drop and Villar would be able to score. A’s center fielder Ramon Laureano had other thoughts. Laureano was playing shallow and was able to make a sensational diving catch to end the inning and save the game for the A’s.

Melvin brought in Jeurys Familia to pitch the ninth. The A’s had used closer Blake Treinen in the last three games at the Coliseum and had the night off. Familia responded by pitching a perfect ninth inning to earn his first save as an Athletic. The A’s won 3-2.

Game Notes: With the win, the A’s improve to 88-58. They are now 54-21 in their last 75 games.

The O’s drop to 41-103.

The A’s remain three games behind the Houston Astros as the Astros beat the Tigers Tuesday night. The A’s picked up a game on the New York Yankees in the race for the first Wild Card slot. The Minnesota Twins beat the Yankees 10-5.

Fiers improved to 12-6 for the season and is 5-0 with Oakland. Wright took the loss for Baltimore.

Stephen Piscotty was 3-for-4 and has now hit in 12 straight games. Khris Davis has now driven in 109 runs, which is good for second in the AL.

The A’s recalled pitcher Frankie Montas from Nashville as the A’s are two pitchers short for the five-man rotation.

The A’s also announced that lefty starter and ace of the staff, Sean Manaea, will have arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder September 18th. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neil ElAttrache at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe clinic in Los Angeles. Manaea will not pitch again this season and may be lost for the entire 2019 season as well. The A’s will give updates on his condition after the surgery is performed.

Time of games was two hours and 45 minutes, and there were 9,545 hardy souls watching the game under very cloudy skies.

Up Next: Game two of the series is Wednesday at 4:05 pm PDT. Liam Hendriks will be the “opener” for the A’s, and he will be opposed by the O’s Andrew Cashner.