The Seattle Marines starter Yusei Kikuchi throws against the Oakland A’s line up in the fifth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Mon May 24, 2021 (AP News photo)

Seattle 4 -6 – 0

Oakland. 2 – 5 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Mon May 24, 2021

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s began today in sole possession of first place in the American League West standings, thanks to an unexpected sweep by Texas of their three game series against their Lone Star rivals, the Houston Astros, with two of the Rangers’ victories coming in the bottom of the tenth.

Somebody is stealing the Athletics’ walk off thunder. Some also must have stolen their bullpen’s mojo because, once Sean Manaea had thrown his 98th pitch of the afternoon yesterday in Anaheim, keeping the Angels scoreless on no runs on four hits over give innings, the quartet of Burch Smith, Sergio Romo, Reymin Gudjuan, and Deolis Guerra combined to cough up six runs in the game’s remaining three frames the guys from Anaheim needed to make the Athletics bite the Angels Stadium dust.

What hurt most in the loss was the poor performance of Romo, who had seemed to be coming out of his doldrums during the A’s last home stand, and the nearly complete shut down of the Oakland offense after the third innings, when they scored the fourth of their eventual five tallies.

Oakland’s middle and late inning troubles did not bode well for tonight’s starter, Frankie Montás, (5-3, 4.79) whose longest outing so far this year had been six innings, a limit he reached in five of his nine starts, most recently on May 14, when he held the Twins to one run on four hits at Target Field. In his last start, on the 19th, he alllowed two runs on seven hits over five innings at the Coliseum.

Seattle’s starting pitcher, Ysei Kikuchi (2-3, 4.02) , arrived on the mound with an impressive history against the A’s. He made his MLB debut against them in the Tokyo Dome on March 21, 2019. That was the first time a Japanese pitcher began his big league career in his native land, an event that was overshadowed at the time by Ichiro’s retirement, which seldom took a back seat to anything else in The Egg during the two days of what was called The Ichiro Series.

He faced the A’s twice during last year’s abbreviated season, pitching a total of 12 innings, equally divided over two starts, of shutout ball against them.

Kikuchi’s best performance this year came on April 29 at Houston, when he held the Astros to one hit over seven innings in a 1-0 win over the ‘stros. In that game, he walked two and struck out seven. His worst outing took place at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox hammered him for five runs, all earned, on six hits in only 4-2/3 frames in a game the Mariners lost, 6-4.

His most recent appearance also resulted in a loss, 4-1 against the Tigers in Seattle a week ago. In it, he surrendered three (earned) runs on three hits and four walks in the course of his five innings pitched.

The Mariners got to Montás early, with a lead off walk to Jarred Kelenic followed by a run producing double by Mitch Haniger. One walk and three strike outs later, Montás had gotten himself out of trouble with minimal damage done, but the 27 pitches he’d thrown in the the game’s first inning gave warning of an early withdrawal from the bull pen bank down the line. Kyle Lewis’s fourth home run of the season, coming with Haniger on first with his second straight hit and two down in the third and landing behind the left field score board, stretched Seattle’s lead to 3-0.

Mark Canha shrunk that lead by a run with two out in the bottom of the frame, depositing a 97 mph Kikuchi four seamer over the 367 foot marker in right field for his tenth round tripper and 35th RBI of 2021. A nice running catch in right center by Lewis, playing center, ended what for a moment looked like the A’s chance to extend the inning.

Seattle was a victim of the Curse of the Lead Off Double in the fourth, leavilng Ty France stranded at second when Montás retired the bottom third of the Mariners´ order on two flies to right and a strike out. There is no Curse of the Lead Off Homer, so Seattle was up 4-1 after Jarred Kelenic slamed Montás´s second offering, a 94 mph sinker so hard over the right field fence that Piscotty just twisted around without taking a step as he watched it fly the last of the 414 feet it travelled.

Montás left the game after striking out the side in the top of the sixth. That gave him 11 for the game, the first time this year he reached double digits in the K column and the fourth time he achieved that level in his big league career. He threw 101 pitches, 67 for strikes, and was touched for four runs, all earned on six hits, two of which were four baggers, three walks, and a wild pitch. His ERA rose to 4.92, and he eventually was charged with the loss.

Cam Bedrosian, recently arrived from Las Vegas, made his return to the majors and his season’s debut in the seventh. He gave the A’s two innings of shut out relief, allowing only base runner, on a walk to Lewis. Bedrosian’s performance may have been the most important event for the Athletics in tonight’s contest, indicating that the weak spot in their bull pen well might have been reinforced.

Lowrie’s single to deep short to lead off the home seventh precipitated Kikuchi’s departure. He’d allowed one run on four hits, one of which left the park, and a pair of walks to go with his trio of strike outs. 59 of his 88 pitches weren’t balls. When the dust had settled, he was the winning pitcher. Rafael Montero replaced Kikkuchi on the mound and disposed of the A’s by fanning Chapman and getting Murphy to ground into an around the horn double play.

Montero wasn’t that successful in the Oakland eighth. Tony Kemp pinch hit for Piscotty and walked. Seth Brown pinch hit for Andrus and doubled Kemp home, narrowing Seattle’s advantage to 4-2. Erik Swanson relieved Montero and walked Canha, putting the potential tying run on base with no outs. But Pinder struck out swinging on an 86 mph slider, and Laureano went down flailing at a 95 mph fast ball. And Olson swung and missed at a 2-2 fast ball, also thrown at 95 mph.

That left it for Deolis Guerra to try to keep Seattle off the board in the top of the ninth and give the A’s a one last shot at a come from behind victory. Two flies to left and a grounder to Kemp, now playing second, and he’d done his job.

Kenan Middleton came in for Seattle to face, at the least, Lowrie, Chapman, and Murphy. Lowrie fouled out to Seager behind third. With the count at 2-2, on Chapman, Middleton got him to swing and miss on an 85 mph slider for out number two. An 86 mph change of pace on a 1-2 did Murphy in and earned Middleton his third save.

The A’s now stand at 28-21, still a game ahead of the idle Astros, who go up against the Dodgers tomorrow. Cole Irvin (3-5, 3.59) will try to right the A’s ship tomorrow at 6:40, going against Seattle’s Logan Gilbert (0-2, 9.45).