Oakland Athletics’ Esteury Ruiz, right, steals third base against Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Edmundo Sosa during the fourth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Jun 17, 2023 (AP News photo)

Philadelphia (37-34).        000 001 000 011. –  3. 9. 1. 

Oakland (19-54).                000 000 000 010 – 2. 8. 0.  12 innings

Time: 3:27      

Attendance: 12,015

Saturday, June 17, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Before game time today, the A’s rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic, recalling infielder Tyler Wade from their AAA farm club in Las Vegas and placing another infielder, Kevin Smith, on the 10 day injured list.

This hasn’t been a good season for James Kaprielian, this afternoon’s  starting pitcher for Oakland against the Philadelphia Phillies. He took the mound today at 2-6, 6.89 and did an excellent job for 5-2/3 frames  in the Athletics’ 3-2 extra innings defeated by the visitors.

Kaprielian threw 83 pitches, 60 of them being counted as strikes. He was charged with one run, which was earned but posthumous. He received a no decision but brought his ERA down to 6.38.

The 13 year veteran’s opposite number from the City of Brotherly Love, where the fans boo Santa Claus, Cristopher Sánchez, was making only his sixth major league start and  second of the season. He had no wins or losses this year when he toed the rubber, although he carried the weight of a 6.23 ERA.

Lifetime, he was 3-2, 5.53. Sánchez pitched brilliantly today, The first hit he allowed was a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth. a hard liner off the bat of  Esteiury Ruíz that hit the hurler’s bare hand  He stayed in the game to a nice round of applause.  

Sánchez walked the first batter he faced after his mishap but struck out the next three. But he didn’t come out to face the A’s in the fifth. He threw a total of 61 pitches, 40 for strikes and allowed one hit and one walk, striking out five and lowering his ERA to 3.24 in his no-decision start.

Third base umpire Brennan Miller ejected Ramón Laureano in the bottom of the first after the A’s starting right fielder complained from the dugout about the third strike that had been called on him by home plate umpire Jordan Baker. JJ Bleday replaced Laureano and was one of Sánchez’s strike out victims in the fourth.

Matt Strahm was Sánchez’s replacement in the bottom of the fifth. Carlos Pérez took his fourth offering deep, 397 feet deep into left center, too put the A’s ahead, 1-0.

Philadelphia came roaring back in the tp of the sixth, With one down, Trea Turner reached first on a hard hit single to third and motored to third on Alec Bohm’s single to center, with Bohm taking second on the throw. That signaled Kaprielian’s exit and Sam Moll’s entrance.

He managed to get out of a bases loaded and two out situation (the additional runner coming on an intentional walk) allowing only one inherited runner, Turner, to score, and that on an infield hit by Bryson Stott. Nonetheless, the score was knotted at one when the A’s came up in the bottom of the frame.

Ruíz led off with a Texas League double to right and after Bleday struck out, advanced to  third when Ryan Noda flew out to center. But Yunior Marte relieved Straham and The Curse of the Leadoff Double took its toll on Oakland as a pinch hitting Seth Brown popped out to second.

Back to back one out singles bh Pérez and Díaz brought Gregory Soto in from the Phillies’ bullpen to put down the threat.

Lucas Erceg kept Philadelphia off the board, permitting only a single to Bryce Harper, in the top of the eighth. José Alvarado mirrored his performance in the bottom of the inning, allowing just a broken bat single to Noda.

Sam Long set the visitors down in order in the top of the ninth.

Craig Kimbrel gave up a leadoff single to a pinching hitting Tony Kemp in the A’s half of the frame. Kemp singled to right and advanced to second on Pérez’s ground out to short.  the newly recalled Wade, who had entered the game as a pinch runner for Díaz in the seventh,  hit a fly to Josh Harrison, who had pinch hit for Kody Clemens in the top of the inning.

Harrison dropped the ball for an error that put runners on the corners. With Peterson, who eventually went down  swinging, at the plate Wade took second on defensive indiferrance. But Peterson and Shea Llangeliers both struck out, and we went into extra innings.

Trevor May took the mound for Oakland in the top of the 10th, with Cristián Pache as the zombie runner. After Edmundo Sosa popped out to first, the A’s conceded a walk to Kyle Schwarber, May fanned Turner and got Bohm to force Schwarber out at second, 6-4. The intentional walk worked.

Andrew Vázquez conceded a walk to Ruíz with Langeliers at second as the placed runner. Bleday attempted a bunt but popped out to Vásqiuez. Noda and Brown went down swinging. That IP worked, too.

Ken Waldichuk was the A’s pitcher for the 11th with Bohm the zombie runner. He wen to third on Harper’s ground out to second before an intentional walk to Realmuto, who scored on Stott’s sac fly to left. Pache grounded out to third to end the inning with Oakland now trailing 2-1.

Kemp sacrificed zombie runner  Noda over to third in the A’s last chance to stay alive. Pérez tied the game with a double to left before Wade fouled out to. third on a beautiful sliding catch by Sosa. Peterson grounded out to second and we went on to the 12th.

Sosa’s fly out to center moved placed runner Pache to third. Oakland challenged the call, but it was confirmed. Schwarber singled him hone, and Philadelphia retook the lead, 3-2. Turner followed that with a walk. Now there were runners on first and second with one away.

Bohm went down swinging, and there were two away and Bryce Harper at bat, He grounded out, 3-1, and the A’s again had one last chance.

Jeff Hoffman now was on the bump. for Philly; Peterson at second for Oaktown. Langeliers sacrificed him to third, but Ruíz fanned and Bleday grounded out, 3-1.

Vásquez got the win and now is 2-0, 1.62. The save went to Hoffman, his first. Waldichuk was  charged with the tough luck loss. His slate now leads 1-5 6.64

For the past two weeks, I’ve introduced my dispatches from the Oakland Coliseum by comparing the A’s current record with those of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who have the worst winning percentage in major league history, and the 1962 New York Mets, who hold the record for the worst in the modern era, which dates from 1901, when the Western League changed its name to the American League and claimed big league status.

Since the 2023 Kansas City Royals and  A’s are engaged in a furious race to the bottom, I intend to include KC’s travails in my game reports for the foreseeable future, although not necessarily as an introduction.

But first, I’d like to point outa difference between Athletics’ pending move to the Las Vegas strip and the circumstances that preceded the westward move of the Dodgers and Giants  and subsequent establishment of the Mets as an expansion team.

The Brooklyn Dodgers won the 1955 World Series and went seven games in the 1956 fall classic. They opened the 1958 season in Los Angeles. In the interim they finished in third place, and were seventh  in their first year in California.

A year later, they won the World Series for only the second time in franchise history. As part of the team’s 1957 campaign to get public financing for a new stadium in Brooklyn, they played one home series against every league rival in Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium, where Jackie Robinson had  hit a home run in his first game for the Montreal Royals in 1946.

The reason I’ve dragged out these details is that the Dodgers’ desertion of the Borough of Homes and Churches was not accompanied by the willful destruction of a successful team in a cynical attempt to drive away fans. (Which is not to deny that it was cynical. Among other things, the Dodgers drove out a thriving Mexican American community in Chavez Ravine).

The Giants basically went along for the ride and to ease the travel expenses of the other NL teams by allowing them to play against two California teams on each trip west of the Mississippi.

They had swept the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series and finished third in ’55, fell to sixth in  1956 and ’57 before climbing to third in their first year at Seals Stadium. In 1960  they moved to Candlestick Park and by 1962 went seven games in the World Series before falling to the Yankees. 

There are promising youngsters on the 2023 Athletics but no signs that the Las Vegas A’s will be playing in the 1928 World Series.

On this day in 1899, the Cleveland Spiders lost a squeaker at Pittsburgh, 3-2, and fell to 9-39, 1.88.  On this day in 1962, the New York Mets dropped both games of a double header at the Polo Grounds to the Chicago Cubs,8-7 and 4-3.

Vinegar Bend Mizell took the loss in the night cap, leaving his team with a record of 16-44. .267. When the A’s finished this afternoon’s contest, Kansas City had beaten the Angels, 10-9, and were 19-51 ,271.  Oakland’s loss left them at 19-54, .160.

Tomorrow, Sunday, the A’s and Phillies will go to it again. The former will entrust their fortunes to Hogan Harris (2-0, 4.84), while the latter will send Zack Wheeler (5-4, 3.73) to the mound. The game is scheduled to start at 1:07.