Oakland A’s rightfielder Lawrence Butler (4) makes a dive to catch the baseball in the top of the fourth inning St Louis Cardinals Jordan Walker’s fly ball at the Oakland Coliseum on Mon Apr 15, 2024 (AP News photo)

Monday, April 15, 2024

St. Louis (8-9). 100 002 000. 3. 8. 0

Athletics (7-10). 000 000 010. 1. 5. 0

Time: 2:19

Attendance: 5,508

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–A cursory glance at the roster of Monday night’s visitors, the St. Louis Cardinals, reminds you of the historical connection between baseball in the Gateway City and the game in city and town by the Golden Gate. The Cardinals got good pitching and two runs in the sixth inning to defeat the Oakland A’s 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Sonny Gray, starting for the Redbirds, threw his first big league pitch on July 10, 2013, for the Oakland Athletics, who had chosen him in the first round of the 2011 draft. Exactly one month later, he chalked up his first win in the show. 2014 was his first full season.

That year he logged 183 strikeouts, was named American League pitcher of the month in April and again in July, and threw a complete game shutout of the Rangers to clinch a playoff spot for the A’s. In the season’s opener the next year, Gray picked up where he had left off, holding the Rangers scoreless with only one hit and a walk over eight innings, in which he threw an economical 98 pitches.

A year and a half laer, at the 2017 trade deadline, Oakland sent him to the Bronx and some international bonus slot cash considerations. In return, the Athletics received Dustin Foster, James Kaprielian, and Jorge Mateo.

It was the first trading deadline deal that Oakland consummated under the presidency of David Kaval. Gray’s entry in the Cardinals’ media guide occupies five pages. Another Bay Area favorite in that publication, Brandon Crawford gets six pages. It almost seems as if the two metropolitan regions had a sister cities exchange program. Think of Tony LaRussa. Think of Dave Duncan. Think of Mark McGuire.

Ross Strippling, the Athletics’ starter, has been a travelling man. The A’s are the fourth major league team he’s pitched for in his 7+ years in the show. He took the mound with a 1-3, 5.48 record against St. Louis, and was 0-3, 5.50 in his three previous starts this season.

Monday night, he lasted 5-2/3 innings, in which he gave up three runs, all of which were earned, although one of them was posthumous, allowing half a dozen hits and a pair of free passes. He struck out three, and 67 of his 101 offerings went into the book as strikes . He was the losing pitcher and now has a slate of 0-4, 5.32).

Shortly before play began, the A’s announced that JD Davis had been placed on the 10 day injured list and that the speedy Esteury Ruíz, whose recent demotion had been strongly criticized, had been recalled from their triple A Las Vegas affiliate. His brief appearance in the eighth was your A’s highlight for tonight.

St. Louis and the team from a city to be determined later began the evening with identical records of 7-9. This was unremarkable for the Cards, since they had finished 2023 at 71-90, it signified that the A’s were on a roll. For one thing, after last year’s horrendous 50-112 anything would be an improvement.

For another, the A’s had won six of their previous eight encounters. That’s impressive, even if the last two of those victories came over the lowly Washington Nationals. The green and gold’s performance on the field probably will afford their fans plenty of aggravation this year, but the 2024 version of the squad is no joke. Tonight, they were outplayed, or better, outpitched, but they performed respectably.

A base on balls to Paul Goldschidt, Lars Nootbaar’s sacrifice to the mound, and a single to left by Nolan Arenado got the Cardinals off to a jump start in the first. Things stayed that way until the top of the sixth. Nootbaar defied The Curse of the Leadoff Double by scoring on a one out double to left by Wilson Contreras. A ground out and walk later, Michael Kelly relieved Stripling, and Jordan Walker singled to put the Cards up, 3-0.

Gray turned in another shutout inning in the sixth and then retired for the evening, giving way to Andrew Kittridge. The veteran had needed only 72 pitches (50 for strikes) to complete those six innings, in which the total damage the A’s inflicted on him came to four hits. He earned the win and now can boast of a perfect 2-0, 0.00 record until his next start.

Kittredge pitched a perfect seventh and was succeeded by Jojo Romero for the eighth. The newly recalled Ruíz pinch hit for Lawrence Butler, took a slider for a strike and then took an 85mph change of pace 405 feet deep, into the left centerfield seats for his first dinger of the year. The Athletics now trailed, 3-1. The game was in reach.

Austin Adams kept the Cards off the board in the top of the ninth in spite of a single, a sacrifice, and a passed ball that put a runner on third with two down.

The Redbirds’ Ryan Helsley earned his sixth save of the year with a 1,2,3 bottom of the ninth. That’s 75% of his team’s wins that the righty reliever has saved.

Monday was Jackie Robinson Day, and everyone wore number 42. This is supposed to be a tribute to a courageous and complex man, to whom all of us owe a great debt. But the idea that Monday—or any other day—we’re all Jackie Robinsons diminishes his stature, It also makes it hard to tell who is doing what to whom on the field, but it’s good for the corporate image of the baseball cartel.

Tuesday, at 6:40 Lance Lynn (0-0, 2.63) will toe the rubber against the Athletics, who will send JP Sears (1-1.5.17)