Oakland Athletics pitcher JP Sears works against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at the Oakland Coliseum Sun Aug 20, 2023 (AP News photo)

Baltimore (77-47). 112 300 230. -12. 17. 0

Oakland (34-90) 000 000 100- 1. 4. 0

Time: 2:43

Attendance; 16,198

Sunday, August 20, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The bleary eyed Oakland A’s dragged themselves to the stately pleasure dome to take the field at this afternoon in hopes of salvaging one win out of their three game series with the American League East leading Baltimore Orioles. Those hopes were dashed by a crushing 12-1 defeat.

The A’s were mathematically eliminated Sunday. This is the earliest in the history of this storied franchise, a founding member of the American League since 1901.  122 Years of history, from Philadelphia to Kansas City, to Oakland. And in a few years, probably Las Vegas. With a 34-90 record #30 in MLB.

They chose JP Sears to make his team leading 25th start of the season. He’s the only member of the Athletics’ mound staff to be in the starting rotation since day one. His record is not impressive, 2-9, 4.27 at game time.

The 27 year old southpaw seems to pitch better as his starts progress, if his opponents’ steadily diminishing batting average over the first three times through the order is any indication. This hot Oakland afternoon, not propitious for a pitcher who had allowed 26 home runs when he toed the rubber at 1:08. When he had finished his afternoon’s work, he had tarnished his already unprepossessing statistical profile.

He had given up seven runs, all earned, on nine hits and two walks. Two of those hits were homes. He threw 68 pitches, 43 for strikes. He was charged with the loss, making his numbers 2-10, 4.61). Zach Neal replaced him to start the top of the fifth.

Kyle Bradish, Sears’ right handed opposing pitcher, has a five pitch repertoire,which consists of sliders (which had comprised 29.8% of his 2023 deliveries before today), fastballs (25.1%), sinkers (18.8%), curves (17.5%), and changeups (8.8%).

They had earned him a respectable 7-6. 3.18 record. He was brilliant this afternoon, holding Oakland scoreless on two hits, both singles, over six innings. He issued just one base on balls and struck out eight, all on 92 pitches, 60 of which went into the books as strikes. He got the win and now has a record of 8-6, 3.03.

The Orioles were the early bird in the scoring department. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with Ramón Urías at bat. He hit a hard grounder to Jordan Dîaz at third, who fired the ball to Zack Gelof at second. Gelof’s relay drew Seth Brown off the bag at first, allowing Adlley Rutschman,, who had led off the game with a single. to come home. The A’s challenged first base umpire Alex Tosi’s call, but the review crew in New York let it stand.

The Orioles feathered their nest with two outs in the second. Jorge Mateo slammed a change of pace off the State Farm advertisement in left center. He flew around the bases for an inside the park home run. They doubled that two run. margen in the next frame.

Back to back two baggers by Ryan Montcastle and Gunnar Henderson put two men in scoring position with none d0wn. Austin Hays hit a liner up the middle that Sears deflected into left field for a two RBI single and then was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double.

Undeterred by their failure to score more runs in the third, Baltimore added another three in the fourth on Jordan Westburg’s lead off double, a walk to Rutschman, Montecastle second consecutive home run, and Henderson’s triple, which occasioned a crew chief’s review to determine exactly where it made contact with the right field wall. The visitors had a 7-0 lead, and we’d seen only 3-1/2 innings of one-sided baseball.

Oakland didn’t put a man on base until Gelof sent a line drive into right for a one out single in the home half of the fourth. He stayed there for the rest of the frame.

Neal blanked the O’s in the fifth and sixth. In the latter, he was the beneficiary of a beautiful unassisted double play by Brown, who grabbed Mateo’s scorching liner down the first base line and tumbled over the bag to double up Ryan McKenna, who had walked.

Neal wasn’t that successful in seventh. Henderson hit his 21st homer of the year, just inside the right field foul line, a one out shot that made it an 8-0 game. Back to back to back singles by Urías, Mullens, and Westburg made it 9-0.

Nick Vespi came in to relieve Bradish for the bottom of the seventh and immediately gave up a home run down the left field line to Rooker, the rookie’s 20th quadrilateral hit of the year. That was the Athletics’ third hit of the day and gave them their first run.

Mateo’s leadoff double against the Coca-Cola ad in right center in the eighth overcame The Curse when Rutschman singled to center, scoring Mateo, and Henderson doubled down the right field line to drive Rutschman home and Neal to the showers, replaced by Francisco Pérez. He surrendered a single to Urías that brought in Henderson to give Baltimore an even dozen runs. That was all he gave up in his 1-2/3 of work.

Shintaro Fujinami, who gave up the game tying round tripper to Aledmys Díaz last night, gave up a leadoff single but preserved the Orioles’ 12-1 victory

This afternoon’s defeat left the A;s with a mark of 34-90, .274. That’s pretty good, compared with the 1899 Cleveland Spiders’ August 20 record of 18-91, .165. They lost to the Chicago Orphans, 8-7, that afternoon. The 1962 New York Mets had an even worse August 20.

They dropped both games of a double header to the Pirates at Forbes Field, 2-0 and 6-3, which put their record at 30-94, .242.

Monday, the A’s will face the Kansas City Royals at 6:40pm PT. Paul Blackburn (3-4, 4.09) will be on the mound at the Coliseum. KC hasn’t yet announced who will pitch for them. Starting tomorrow with their night game at Oakland vs Royals, Athletics have 40 games left.