Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Luis Medina jumps over Detroit Tigers’ Zach McKinstry (39), who slides into third base after hitting a double and advancing on an error during the fifth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Thu Sep 21, 2023 (AP News photo)

Detroit (72-81).          200 030 020.  –    7.  9.  0

Oakland (46-107).     000 000 003.  –    3.  5.  3

Time: 2:33  

Attendance: 6,160

Thursday, September 21, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND—The significant news from the Oakland Coliseum tonight wasn’t the first of the four game series  between the Detroit Tigers and your for now Oakland Athletics. Both teams had already been eliminated from wild card competition.

Indeed, Detroit would have had to win tonight and go onto be undefeated in their nine subsequent encounters to reach .500 by the season’s end. I don’t have to tell you that Oakland’s chance of getting into the postseason crap shoot had been shot to hell some time ago.

So tonight’s decisive 7-3 win by the visiting Tigers paled in importance in the face of the stark climatological reality of a game time air quality index of 104 with no significant improvement expected before Saturday. 

It almost goes without saying that the PA announced before the game that it was a perfect day for baseball. (After each game, the PA blares its thanks to the spectators “for being the best fans in baseball.” We heard the same message tonight as well).

Luis Medina, one of the four players the A’s got from the Yankees in exchange for Frankie Montás and Lou Trivino last August, sent his first offering into the smoke filled air at 6:41. The young lefty was 3-9, 5.56 in this, his rookie season and went home after the game at 3-10, 5.73.

He lasted five innings, and pitched  acceptably in the first four of them. The two runs he surrendered in the initial frame were earned but not deserved. Two of the three he gave up in the fifth were well and truly earned.  He faced 23 batters in all and threw  80 pitches, 58  of them considered strikes. He allowed six hits and a walk while striking out five. He also committed a run producing balk. It was no surprise that he didn’t come out for the sixth.

Tarik Skubal, a Hayward native, was 6-3, 3.25 for the less than mediocre Bengals when he went to work in the bottom of the first. That’s pretty good, but when you consider that he had gone 4-2, 2.98 in his seven previous starts, you realized that the weak hitting Athletics and their game time team batting average of .224,were up against a formidable opponent, at least as far as pitching was concerned. Although still poor, Detroit’s team BA of .234 before today left little doubt about which team was least bad  in that department.

Skubal’s performance tonight was excellent. He shut the Athletics out on two hits over seven frames, striking out ten and issuing but a single base on balls. He faced 22 hitters, one over the minimum, helped out by two double plays, and threw 87 pitches, 61 for strikes. He earned his seventh victory against three defeats and lowered his ERA to 2.95. Brenan Hanifee relieved him and went the rest of the way.

The Tigers lost no time in taking the lead. Matt Vierling’s leadoff pop fly to short right fell in for a Texas League double. He scored on Spencer Torkelson’s grounder to short that Nick Alllen threw away in an attempt to get Vierling out at home, Torkelson taking second on Allen’s error and then scoring when Andy Ibáñez smacked a triple to right center.

The Tigers tacked on a trio  of talleys in their half of the fifth. Parker Meadows started things with a single to center and moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch to Jake Rogers, who then flew out to the right field warning track, advancing Meadows to third.

Verling’s single to center drove in Meadows. Zach McKinstry smacked his 20th two bagger of the year,  a line drive to right that plated Vierling, and kept on running to third on Brent Rooker’s errant throw. After Torkelson went down swinging, Medina ceded an international pass to Kerry Carpenter. Both runners moved up 90 feet, with McKinstry scoring, on a balk.  That made it 5-0, in favor of the men from Mo’ Town. 

Mason Miller relieved Medina for the sixth. He pitched a scoreless inning that ended when the A’s challenged second base umpire  Brian Walsh’s safe call on an attempted stolen base by Parker Meadows, who had received a two out walk. The A’s won the challenge, and Miller went on to retire the Tigers in order in the seventh.

That ended Miller’s effectiveness. Torkelson and Carpenter hit back to back singles to kick start the visitors’ eighth, and Ibáñez smacked a single to left through a drawn in infield to make it 6-0- Miller was yanked in favor of Easton Lucas, which, in turn, brought  about a pinch hitter for Miguel Cabrera (how the mighty have fallen!), André Lipcius.

With him at the plate, Lucas unleashed a wild pitch that moved both runners up a notch. After Lucas walked LIpcius, Zack Short pinch hit for Akkil Baddoo. He hit a weak grounder to first that Jordan Díaz fumbled,  bringing in Carpenter and leaving the bases loaded. Then Lucas settled down and retired the side with Detroit ahead, 7-0. Trevor May hurled a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.

Oakland finally ended their string. of goose eggs in their last turn at bat. Kevin Smith advanced to third on a ground out to second by Allen after leading off with a double to left and scored on a wild pitch to Gelof, who reached first on a two out infield single.  Oakannd’s last hurrah came on Rooker’s 28th home run of his rookie season, a blast that cleared the 388 foot marker at the State Farm advertisement in right center.

The series will resume Friday, evening at 6:40pm PT with Ken Wldichuk (3-8, 5.40), another acquisition in the Montás, Trivino trade, facing off against Sawyer Gipson-Long (2-0, 2,70) at the Swinging Coliseum,.