Oakland A’s starter Cole Irvin delivers a pitch in the top of the second inning against the Seattle Mariners at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue May 25, 2021 (AP News photo)

Seattle 4 – 11 – 1

Oakland 3 – 8 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Tue May 25, 2021

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s (28-22) lost their third straight game on Tuesday night to the Seattle Mariners (23-26) 4-3 but first Let’s start with a quick look at the American League West standings at the start of play on Tuesday.

Oakland, at 28-21, leads Houston by a game, followed by Seattle, Texas, and Los Angeles, five and half, six, and seven games behind the A’s, respectively.

Now, let’s look at some team statistics. The Athletics had a team batting average of .226 and an OPS of .723. The Astro’s were .270, tops in the majors, and .762, second only to the Red Sox. The Mariners were hitting an anemic .199 and .639, the lowest in both categories in all of MLB. The Rangers’ BA was .235; their OPS, .692. And the Angels came in at .247, .723.

I’ll list only ERA and WHIP for the pitching stats. They are

Oakland 4.27, 1.31 Houston 3.79, 1.19 Seattle 4.58, 1.31 Texas 4.25, 1.34 Los Angeles 5.25, 1.46.

This superficial glance at the stats indicates that, the narrow gap between the A’s and the Astros in the standings aside, the home team has a pretty insecure place in the AL West pecking order. That’s why Cam Bedrosian’s two inning stint of shut out relief work last night and the news that Jesús Luzardo soon will embark on a rehab assignment come as rays of hope for the latter part of the season.

For the immediate future, the numbers of Seattle’s starting pitcher for tonight, Logan Gilbert, 0-2, 9.45, made the A’s prospects at game time brighter than they might otherwise have been. Just remember, however, that the 6’6″, 225 pound right hander, turned 24 only a couple of weeks ago, and was the Mariners’ first round draft choice in 2018.

He has only one year of professional baseball experience and spent last season in the Mariners’ alternate site. Sometimes an inexperienced youngster of talent can baffle veteran batters who are used to more sophisticated adversaries.

The A’s sent Cole Irvin (3-5, 3.59), who had felt embarrassed about his performance last Thursday against the Astros. As well he might. He gave up five of Houston’s runs in an 8-4 loss to the visitors, and he did it in only five innings.

Indeed, Irvin has been so bad against Houston and so good against everybody else that if you factor the ‘stros out of his numbers, you find that Irvin has a record of 3-1, 1.89 and his opponents’ BA is a stingy .218. Although only one AL hurler had been charged with more losses than Irvin, dawn broke this morning with only 14 having a lower ERA. Tonight was his maiden voyage against the Mariners.

Bomel gave Matt Chapman a respite from his duties at the hot corner, playing Chad Pinder there in his stead. Pinder is a compitent defender at seven different positions, but he’s no Matt Chpaman, and the difference cost the A’s a couple of runs in the top of the first.

With two on and none out, Kyle Lewis hit a bounder behind third. Pinder fielded it cleanly, stepped on the bag, and threw to first. Late. Instead of a runner on second and two out, Seattle had men on first and second with one down.

Kyle Seager’s grounder to Elvis Andrus in the shift, moved both runners up, which allowed Mitch Haniger, the lead runner, to score on another grounder to third. Pinder made a nice try to corral the ball but couldn’t get handle on it. JP Crawford’s single to center drove in Lewis. And that’s how the A’s came to their first inning at bat trailing 2-0.

Seattle’s rookie set the A’s down in order in that frame, and Irvin, helped by a stellar grab of a line drive that Pinder grabbed before it could fall for extra bases, returned the compliment.

It was in the bottom of the second that Oakland struck back. Matt Olson led off with a sinking, slicing liner to left that Jarred Kelenic couldn’t handle and which landed safely for a two base hit. The next batter, Jed Lowrie, slotted as the DH, smacked a 95 mph fast ball off the left center field fence to plate Olson.

It looked as though Gilbert might wiggle out of his predicament, retiring Sean Murphy and Pinder, but Tony Kemp, who’s wielded a hot bat for the past ten games, came through with an RBI single to right on a count of 0-2, to knot up the score. The A’s threatened to take the lead when Elvis Andrus followed Kemp with another single to right, putting him in scoring position at second, but Mark Canha flew out to medium deep right to end the rally.

Irvin, who had pitched in and out of trouble in the first and third, was in trouble again in the Seattle fourth. Crawford led off with a line drive double to left. Eric Cambell fanned. Tom Murphy smacked a double to left center, breaking the tie and, after Mayfield grounded out to Pinder, scored on Kelenic’s sharp single to right that got past a diving Olson. Haniger’s grounder to Pinder ended the frame with the A’s again trailing by two.

Irvin retired the first two Mariners he faced in the fifth, but back to back singles by France and Crawford led to his removal in favor of Burch Smith, who wilded pitched the runners up a notch each with Eric Campbell at the plate before walking him to load the bases. Then Tom Murphy flew out to right to end the inning.

Irvin’s line for the evening was four runs, all earned, on ten hits over 4-2/3 innings. He struck out two. and walked one. His pitch count was 73, with 50 counted as strikes. Burch Smith followed him with a scoreless inning and a third before yielding to Reymin Gudjuan, who retired the side in order in the seventh, who, in turn, would give way to Sergio Romo in the eighth, in which he retired the side in order, a welcome improvement over his recent disappointing performances.

When the A’s came up in their half of the sixth, Gilbert was gone. He’d thrown 78 pitches (51 strikes) over four innings, in which he allowed two runs, both earned, on four hits.

He didn’t walk anyone and struck out four. In his place was Paul Sewald, who immediately surrended a double to left center to Andrus. After Canha lined out softly to first, Sewald walked Brown on four pitches. Laureano hit a fly to deep left center, but Lewis hauled it down before Olson bounced out, 3-1 to end the threat.

Sewald continued to be effective in the sixth, striking out the three batters he faced, Lowrie, Murphy, and Pinder. JT Chargois took over for him in the seventh. After an inning and a third of frustration at Charois’ hand, the Athletics finally got someone in scoring position against Seattle’s pen when Laureano doubled to right center with one down in the eighth. This led immediately to Anthony Misiewcicz’s entry into the fray.

The lefty heaved a wild pitch to Olson that sent Laureano to third and then home when catcher Tom Murphy threw wildly into left field, closing the gap between the teams to a single run. Olson then walked and Lowrie struck out swinging, bringing up Sean Murphy.

Another wild pitch put Olson in scoring position. Oakland’s Murphy then lauched a towering drive to deep right center that Hanigar brought down with a leaping grab at the wall. It now was up to Lou Trivino, who entered the game to pitch the ninth, to hold the A’s deficit at one. Which he did on eight pitches.

The stage was set for a classic Oakland comeback, with Rafael Montero coming on to face the bottom third of the A’s batting order. He got Pinder on a ground out to short. He got Kemp on a pop up to short. Andrus, hitting all of .194, kept the A’s hopes alive with a single up the middle, bringing Canha, 0 for 4 for the night, to the plate.

With a ball and two strikes on him, he sent a ground single up the middle, bringing Andrus all the way to third and Brown to the plate. Montero jumped ahead of him, 0-2. Then Brown bounced the ball back to the mound, Montero grabbed it, and beat Brown to the bag.

The win went to Seward in relief. He now is 2-0. The save was credited to Montero, his sixth. Irvin was charged with his sixth loss.

The A’s still lead their division, thanks to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers, who handled Houston for them, 9-2. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Oakland hopes to salvage a win on Wednesday afternoon, when the rivals wrap up their three game series. First pitch is scheduled for 12:37. After that, the Angels come to town for a four game set before the green and gold set off on a seven day, six game trip to Denver and Phoenix.