Washington Nationals pitcher MacKenzie Gore pitches into the bottom of the fifth inning against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Apr 13, 2024 (AP News photo)

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Washington (6-7). 010 010 001. 3. 10 0

Athletics (6-9). 000 000 100. 1 8. 0

Time: 2:35.

Attendance: 3,330

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the baseball fans today. The forecast was for unseasonably low temperatures and thunderstorms between noon and one o’clock. Cloudy weather was forecast for the rest of the afternoon, except for more thundershowers between 3:00 and 5:00. That kind of put a damper on the Athletics’ recent surprisingly successful past, in which they had won five of their previous six contests.

Joe Boyle (1-1 ,8.22 at game time) threw the first pitch at 1:07. He would throw 85 more before leaving after five innings, trailing 1-0. The tally he allowed was earned in what turned out to be a 3-1 loss to the visitors, but the predicted thundershowers never materialized, and the youngster pitched rather well.

Boyle yielded five hits and a walk over five full innings, allowing but a single run, which was earned, on five hits and a walk, striking out five. His pitch count reached 86, 51 of them being considered strikes. He took the loss, and now stands at 1-2, but lowered his ERA to 5.68.

“I thought Boyle was good today,” said Manager Mark Kotsay. Obviously, we always know that the pitch count’s going to get run up with him. He’s more of a strikeout guy. He had five today, and only one walk, which is a good sign. I thought he did his job really well.”

The forecast for MacKenzie Gore, Boyle’s opposite number on the team from the nation’s capital, was mixed but promising. Here’s what the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga had to say about him on April 2:: …even after a somewhat uneven outing in [the Nats’ home opener] this much is obvious: He can do things with a baseball most people can’t.”

Svrluga went on to comment, “So that’s what the 2024 season is about for Gore, the Nationals’ gifted but developing left-hander: taking that arm talent and squeezing results from it. His stat line from his first start of the season …. was decidedly middling. His stuff is not. The trick: getting the outcomes to match the ability about 30 more times.”

Gore pitched well in his 5-2/3 inning mound tenure. Derek Law replaced him and left after retiring Gelof and Davis and allowing a single to Tyler Nevin and a walk to JD Davis. The starter had shut the A’s out on four hits and a walk. He struck out 11 of the 19 batters he faced and,with the win, improved his record to 2-0, 2.81.

Washington took the lead in the top of the third. Zack Gelof made a beautifully smooth play to rob Riley Adams of a hit that was heading towards right field. Jacob Young followed with a hard line drive that bounced off Boyle and caroomed over to Gelof for an infield single. After a quick check up, Boyle stayed in the game and surrendered a triple down the right field line to bring in Young and put Washington up 1-0.

Kyle Muller replaced Boyle for the sixth and gave up another run on doubles to left center by Winker and García. Muller pitched three innings in total.

“This is a good role for Kyle,” said Kotsay. He’s had some good outings this season. He worked really hard this off-season. We met early on in the off-season, and talked to him about maybe making some changes to the pitch shape, but he wanted to make a change to his arm angle and raise it up. He’s done a great job, and we’ve seen good results, so [I] tip my cap to Kyle for putting in the work this off-season and showing up and really making a difference right now in his role helping the bullpen out. He’s [had] some good performances so far.”

The A’s cut their deficit in half in the bottom of the seventh. Nick Allen singled off Robert García, who had relieved Gore with two down in the “home” sixth, took second on a wild pitch, and scored on Abraham Toro’s double to left.

Washington used a total of six pitchers. They were, in addition to Gore and Law, Robert García, Jordan Weems, Hunter Harvey, and Kyle Finnegan, who earned his fourth save with a 1,2,3 bottom of the ninth.

TJ MacFarland and Michael Kelly pitched in the top of the ninth for the A’s. The former left with two out and Trey Lipscomb on first with a single to right. The latter gave up a single to Adams and an RBI double to Young that drove the last nail into the A’s coffin. The run was charged to MacFarland.

“The moral of the story is the offense,” said Kotsay. “We need to hit better, and we need to score more runs, because the margin for error is very minimal right now.”

Game Notes: Oakland A’s public address announcer Amelia Schimmel did double duty doing the A’s and Nationals PA announcing on Saturday afternoon and then doing the PA announcing in San Jose at SAP Center at the NHL San Jose Sharks-Minnesota Wild game which started at 7:30pm on Saturday night.

Sunday, afternoon, the A’s will try to salvage a series split. They’ll send lefty Alex Wood (0-1,8.03) to the mound. Washington will go with Trevor Wiliams, a right with a 2-0, 2.61 record. Monday, A’s fans will get a chance to watch Sonny Gray (1-0,0.00) in his old stomping grounds as he pitches for the visiting Sonny Gray.