Month: May 2024

Oakland A’s runner Brett Harris (left) dives in safely at second base as the Texas Rangers Josh Smith (right) puts on the tag just a bit too late in the bottom of the sixth inning of the second game of a doubleheader at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed May 8, 2024 (AP News photo)

Texas (21-17). 014 200 032. 12. 16. 1

Athletics (18-21). 022 200 014. 11. 14. 1

Time: 3:33

Attendance: 8,230

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–After halting their losing streak at three in the first game of this lovely sunny day’s double header on Wedensday, the Athletics came up short in the nightcap, falling 12-11 in an action packed melodrama that lasted over three and a half hours,

Both starting pitchers were recently called up right handers. Oakland sent Osvaldo Bido, whose big league experience had consisted of 50-2/3 innings with Pittsburgh, where he went 2-5, 5.86 last year. He threw 57 pitches before he was relieved, leading 2-1, after hitting Josh Smith with a pitch in the top of the third.

That hit batter loaded the bases, and so the runs they eventually scored were charged to the starter, who wound up being the losing pitcher. He gave up a total of four runs, all earned, including the three posthumous ones and notched four strikeouts against two walks, giving him a record of 0-1, 13.50.

The reason for his departure was a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. Michael Kelly (1/3 of an inning, three runs, two earned), TJ McFarland (two innings, two hits), Kyle Muller (three innings, three runs, all earned, on five hits), and the newly promoted Easton Lucas, making his. season’s debut in the ninth (one inning, two runs, earned, on three hits) also pitched for the Athletics.

Jack Leiter, who started for Texas, didn’t have any big league experience before this year and probably regretted the little he had in 2024; his record at game time was 0-0, 17.18. He lasted four frames, in which he gave up six runs, four earned, on seven hits, two of them out of the park, and left with a no decision that improved his record to 0-1, 12.91).

The Rangers sent six more pitchers to the mound. The first of them, Jaob Latz, threw a one hit scoreless fifth, The second, Josh Sborz, gave up a walk to the first batter he faced in the bottom of the sixth, went 3-1 to the sixth, and then left with an undisclosed injury, replaced by David Robertson (two innings, a walk and five Ks).

He was followed by José Leclerc (one inning, one hit, one run–earned–one walk, two strikeouts), Owen White (no outs, three hits, three runs, all earned), and Kirby Yates (one inning, two hits, and a run, which was earned).

The Rangers jumped ahead early with a run in the top of the second on a two out walk to Johnah Heim,and back to back singles by Ezequiel Durán and Davis Wendzel.

In the bottom of the second, Shea Langliers picked up where he had left off in the afternoon’s opener and put the green and gold ahead with , 2-1, with a 454 foot home run to centerfield, his second of the afternoon and ninth of the season.

Seth Brown, who had led off the frame with a single, was on base, giving the A’s DH seven RBI for the day, which tied him with Reggie Jackson for the most runs batted in a double header by an Oakland Athletic, set in 1969. Maybe there should be an asterisk next to his name in the record book due to the toponym.

Michael Kelly replaced Bido after his removal in the top of the third. With Semien, who had singled, and Lowe, who had walked, on base and two away, Heim’s grounder to second just snuck past Toro and into center to drive in Lowe and Semien and send Smith to third. Travis Jankowski brought him home with a single to right, and Texas was on top, 5-2.

But the A’s fought back, scratching out a couple of runs in the bottom of the frame. Toro led off with a scratch single to second. With one out, Rooker lined a single to center that put Toro on second. Seth Brown forced Rooker out at second on a grounder to first.

Umpire Mike Estabrook called Brown safe at first, but Texas challenged that ruling, which stood on review. Langeliers then forced Brown out at second while Rooker scored, giving Langeliers another RBI and putting him ahead of Reggie for the most RBIs for the Athletics in a twin bill. (See above proviso)

The A’s coughed those two runs up in the next inning. TJ McFarland relieved Kelly with Tavares and Semien on base and nobody out. Each of them advanced a bag on Evan Carter’s ground out to first and scored on Nathaniel Lowe’s single to first. It now was 7-4, Texas.

But not for long. Max Schuemann led off the bottom of the fourth with single to center and Tyler Soderstrom, recalled from Las Vegas when the rosters were expanded to 27 for the double header, celebrated by sending an 88.7 mph cutter 421 feet deep into the left centerfield seats at 106.5 6mph. The A’s now trailed by a single run, 7-6.

The A’s came close to drawing even in the bottom of sixth. Robertson delivered a fourth ball to Toro and then retired Bleday and Rooker. He walked Thyler Nevin, who had replaced Brown, bringing up Langeliers, who was having the game of a lifetime. He worked a full count, taking close pitches, and then whiffed on a fastball.

Texas put the game on ice in the eighth with two walks, a double, a stolen base, a throwing error by Sodeerstrom, now catching, and a pair of singles, with an overturned safe call at home thrown in for good measure. All that netted Texas three runs and a lead of 10-6..

Still, the A’s inched closer, picking up a run on a leadoff walk to Harris, a double by Toro, and Bleday’s RBI ground out to first, and it was 10-7.

If Texas put the game on ice in the eighth, they locked it into the deep freezer in the ninth. Lucas allowed them two more runs on three singles and a walk.

Even that wasn’t enough to make it an easy win for the Texans. Singles by Langeliers, JD Davis, Schuemann, and Toro, Bleday’s double, a sac fly by Harris, and a balk combined to bring the A’s within a run of tying it up against Owen White and Kirby Yates. Later pitched to six batters, counting an intentional walk to Rooker, to earn his seventh save. Robertson, now 2-0, 0.87, was the winning pitcher.

The Athletes are off to Seattle, where Paul Blackburn (3-0, 3.00) will face a Seattle pitcher to be announced on Friday evening at 6:40. They return to the empty confines of the Coliseum on Tuesday, May 21 to do battle with the Colorado Rockies.

The Oakland A’s Shea Langeliers (23) swung a hot bat in the first game of a doubleheader against the Texas Rangers driving in a career high five RBIs is seen here being congratulated by teammate Brent Rooker (25) at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed May 8, 2024 (AP News photo)

Texas (21-17). 101 200 000 4. 8. 0

Athletics (18-20). 020 211 30x 9 10 0

Time: 2:19

Attendance: Not announced

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND– After dropping three games in a row, one to the lowly Miami Marlins, and two to the powerful Texas Rangers, the Athletics returned to the win column by outmuscling the visitors from Arlington, 9-4, in the first game of this afternoon’s twin bill..

JP Spears, who started the first game has been a one-man double header so far this season. He had allowed a run or less in four of his previous starts and four or more in the remaining three. That gave him a record of 2-2, 3.89.

By day’s end Sears had thrown 88 pitches, 58 for strikes, over 5-2/3 innings, and allowed four runs, all earned, on seven hits, two of which went yard and a walk, while striking out three. Sears got the win, and his record now stands at 3-2, 4.20. Austin Adams relieved him with two down and a runner on first in the bottom of the sixth.

Sears opposite number for Bruce Bochy’s defending World Series champion Rangers, Michael Lorenzen, also is a Janus-faced hurler. His 2023 highlights were high indeed, including a no hitter in his second start for Philadelphia but Lorenzen’s post acquisition fall off fully justified the Phillies’ refusal to offer him a multi-year contract, leading him to sign as a free agent with Texas on March 22.

Sears brought a season record of 2-1, 3.52 and lifetime numbers of 4-0, 0.29 against the A’s with him to the Coliseum. Sears had seven pitches in his arsenal; the four seamer, slider, sinker, and change of pace being the ones he uses most frequently.

Rangers starter Michael Lorenzen was unimpressive this afternoon, yielding a half a dozen runs, all of them earned, in as many innings. He threw 107 pitches, 30 of them balls and walked two batters, while striking out six. He took the loss, which left him at 2-2, 4.66.

Sears used up his Dr. Jekyl allotment of runs in the opening frame. Marcus Semien opened things with a single to left, advanced to second on a walk to Corey Seager and to third on a fielder’s choice, short to third, when Brett Harris was off the bag to receive the throw and then failed to take the runner. Jonah Heim’s sacrifice fly to right brought the Rangers’ second baseman home with the game’s first tally.

Sean Langeliers erased Texas’s momentary advantage with a 376 foot blast into the left field staircase with Brent Rooker, who had singled to center, on board. It was the A’s eighth round tripper and came on an 89 mph sweeper.

The A’ lead was shorter than the Rangers’. Semien, leading off, wiped it out on the third pitch of the top of the third, a 91 mph four seam fastball that carried 412 feet into left for his game tying seventh dinger of 2024.

Texas went ahead again in its next go round on a two run homer by Leody Tavares. Ezequiel Durán was on base after an infield single and a productive out when the Rangers’ center fielder knocked the ball 411 feet into left centerfield. It was, after all, a dry, sunny day by the banks of the River Nimitz.

Before you knew it, the green and gold had knotted the score again. Rooker knocked a one out double off the right centerfield wall, between the State Farm and Coca-Cola signs. Davis followed with a two bagger to right, but Rooker stopped at third because Adolís García almost caught Davis’s shot. Both runners scored on Langeliers’ double.

One inning later, Harris put the A’s ahead with his second home run of the year, taking a first pitch 92 mph sinker 428 feet into the left field seats. It was now 5-4 in favor of the temporary occupants of the Coliseum.

They added to that in their half of the sixth. Langeliers followed a lead off walk to Davis with his third extra base hit in as many plate appearances, a triple to left center, and now Kotsay’s crew was up, 6-4.

Cole Winn took over for Lorenzen after the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” He was the victim of the A’s third home run of the game, a three run 427 foot shot by Rooker over the wall in dead centerfield, his ninth HR and 22nd, 23rd, and 24th RBI of the year.

The reigning AL Reliever of the Month, fireballer Mason Miller, set the Rangers down 1,2,3 in the eighth, two of them by strikeouts. Ditto in ninth.

The second game of the afternoon’s entertainment is scheduled to start at 3:35. Both teams will send freshly promoted right handed starters. The Athletics will call on Osvaldo Bido, who has 50-2/3 innings of Major League experience but hasn’t thrown a pitch in the show for 2024. The Rangers’ Jack Leiter does, although he probably wishes he didn’t since he comes to work today at 0-0,17. 18).

Oakland A’s pitcher Ross Stripling (36) stands on the mound to be removed from the game next to catcher Kyle McCann (52) in the top of the second inning against the Texas Rangers at Oakland Coliseum on Tue May 7, 2024 (AP News photo)

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Oakland, California

Texas Rangers 15 (21-17)

Oakland Athletics 8 (17-20)

Win: Jose Urena (1-2)

Loss: Ross Stripling (1-6)

Time: 3:07

Attendance: 3,965

By Stephen Ruderman

OAKLAND–The Rangers beat the A’s 15-8 thanks to a 10-run second inning to hand the A’s their third-straight loss, but the A’s showed tremendous resilience despite it.

Following their six-game winning streak that got them up to .500, the A’s dropped two-straight. Today, they would send Ross Stripling, who has been off to a tough start this season, to the mound as they looked to stop the snide.

Stripling’s struggles continued when Marcus Semian hit a home run just to the left of straight-away center field on the first pitch of the game. The Rangers threatened further damage after base-hits by Nathaniel Lowe and Evan Carter, but Stripling got Josh Smith to fly out to center to end the inning after giving up just the run on the home run.

Texas went with the veteran right-hander, Jose Urena. Abraham Toro lined a base-hit up the middle and into center field to start the bottom of the first, and Seth Brown walked with two outs, but J.D. Davis lined out to right to end the inning.

Stripling may have escaped further damage in the top of the first, but the top of the second would be an absolute nightmare for him. Travis Jankowski and Jonah Heim singled to put runners at the corners with nobody out. Leody Tavares and Marcus Semien then singled to knock in Jankowski and Heim respectively, and the Rangers led 3-0.

The Rangers were just getting started. Corey Seager hit a ground ball to first-baseman J.D. Davis, and when Davis threw to second to try and get Semien, the ball sailed into left field, as Tavares scored to make it 4-0. Lowe walked to load the bases, and Adolis Garcia walked to make it 5-0.

Evan Carter popped out to third-baseman Brett Harrris for the first out eight batters into the inning, and Josh Smith singled to score Seager and move each runner up one base. Jankowski struck out swinging for the second, but the Rangers were still far from done.

Heim singled on a ground ball up the middle to knock in a pair and make it 8-0, and Tavares hit a texas-leaguer to left to score Smith and make it 9-0. That did it for Ross Stripling, who lasted just an inning and two-thirds.

“[I’m] definitely bummed,” said Stripling. “I feel like one thing I’ve been able to mostly do this year is get through five [innings] and into the sixth, and save the bullpen…..today, [I was] not able to do that.”

Mark Kotsay brought in Hogan Harris, who immediately gave up a two-run double to Marcus Semien, who had already hit for three legs on the cycle in just the second inning. Seager singled and Lowe walked to bring up Adolis Garcia, who was the 16th batter of the inning.

The Rangers were two batters away from batting around twice in the inning, but Garcia struck out swinging, and Texas would have to settle for just 10 runs in the top of the second inning. Of the 10 runs, only four of them were earned, as the other six came as a consequence of Davis’ error.

To the A’s credit, they did not go down quietly in the bottom of the second. Kyle McCann doubled on a fly ball to left that left-fielder Evan Carter lost in the sun. Lawrence Butler grounded out to second to move McCann over to third.

The A’s got on the board when Darell Hernaiz reached on a throwing error by shortstop Corey Seager, but Hernaiz injured his left ankle after his foot landed awkwardly on the bag at first. Hernaiz was down for a few minutes, as the injury looked quite severe. He did have to leave the game, but he was able to walk off on his own power, as Max Schuemann came in to pinch-run.

Brett Harris walked, and Abraham singled to load the bases. Bren Rooker then hit a squibber off the end of the bat to third that Josh Smith charged and had to play on to make it 11-2. Seth Brown grounded out to end the inning, but the A’s would not be done either.

The third inning was the exact opposite of the second. Hogan Harris was back out for the top of the third and threw a 1-2-3 inning, as did Urena in the bottom of the third.

The Rangers scored four more runs off Harris in the top of the fourth to extend their already-enormous lead to 15-2, and Urena pitched a scoreless bottom of the fourth. Urena pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth to end his afternoon.

Hogan Harris was still going and threw a 1-2-3 top of the sixth. Bruce Bochy made a plethora of defensive changes for Texas and brought in Jonathan Hernandez to pitch the bottom of the sixth.

McCann, Schuemann and Brett Harris all walked to load the bases for Abraham Toro. Hernandez threw a wild pitch, which allowed McCann to score to make it 15-3, and Toro grounded out to second to make it 15-4.

JJ Bleday and Brent Rooker walked to load the bases, as the A’s had an opportunity to put a further dent in Texas’ lead, but Bochy pulled Hernandez for Yerry Rodriguez, who got Seth Brown to ground out to first to end the inning.

Hogan Harris pitched through a two-out error in the top of the seventh, and that would be the end of his afternoon. Harris didn’t have the greatest outing of all-time, but he did exactly what the A’s needed him to do after Stripling only went an inning and two-thirds. Harris ended up going five and two-thirds, and with a doubleheader tomorrow, he single-handedly saved the A’s bullpen.

“Hogan did a nice job coming in,” said Kotsay. He had one bad inning, but other than that, he threw up some zeroes, had some life to his fastball and threw strikes. For Hogan to get that deep into a game, coming into a game in the second and [getting us through the seventh], it was nice.”

Yerry Rodriguez stayed out for the bottom of the seventh, but Bochy removed Marcus Semien after a 4-for-5 performance despite being a triple away from the cycle. J.D. Davis grounded out to first to start the inning, but McCann hit a home run to center to make it 15-5. For McCann, he ended up scoring three of the A’s five runs this afternoon.

Kotsay then brought in 30-year-old Tyler Ferguson, who finally made his major league debut after over eight years in the minor leagues. It was the Rangers who drafted Ferguson in 2015, so his debut had extra significance to it. Ferguson walked Leody Tavarez to start the inning, but he got Jonathan Ornelas to fly out to left, and he struck out Davis Wendzel and Nathaniel Lowe, both looking.

Rodriguez was still on the mound for Texas in the bottom of the eighth, and he struck out Toro looking to start the inning. However, the A’s still had life in them, just as they had all game. Bleday lined a base-hit to center; Rooker walked; and Seth Brown hit a three-run home run to right-center to make it 15-8.

Ferguson was back out for the ninth and set down the first two men he faced, but he ran into trouble with two outs. Josh Smith doubled to right; Jankowski was hit by a pitch; and Andrew Knizer walked to load the bases. Ferguson then engaged in a 10-pitch battle with Leody Tavares and won it, as Tavares ended up flying out to left to end the inning.

“[Ferguson] got his first major league strikeout, which was great,” said Kotsay. “[He] pitched out of a bases-loaded jam there in the ninth and made pitches when he had to. [He was] maybe a little nervous, [and] a little anxious in terms of his command, but he did a nice job as well in [helping us] not having to go back into the bullpen again and pitching those two innings for us.”

“[I] really liked him in Spring Training,” said Stripling. “He obviously was there to the very end. It felt like he was probably one of our last guys that we were debating whether he would make the team or not…..some [journey men] like that make it, and [I] just couldn’t be more happy for him…..hopefully a day like today makes it all worth it for him.”

Cole Winn was summoned by Bochy for the bottom of the ninth, and he pitched a scoreless inning to end it, as the A’s simply ran out of juice.

The A’s have dropped three straight and fall to 17-20, but despite the 10-run second inning and the lopsided score, they showed resilience all afternoon and believed they could come back the entire time. This A’s team clearly believes in themselves, and that is really what has made them fun and exciting to watch this season.

“[Our] offense continued to take good at-bats, and that shows their character, that shows their grit,” said Kotsay. “They didn’t just give at-bats away…..for our guys to continue to fight, continue to put up some runs there and add to a score where we were really far behind and give us a chance to continue forward, it was good.”

The A’s will close out the series with a doubleheader tomorrow. The left-hander, JP Sears, will make the start in the first game, which will get underway at 12:37 p.m.

News and Notes:

Darell Hernaiz underwent an MRI on his left ankle after the game. Manager Mark Kotsay believes it is most likely a sprain, but the A’s will give an update on Hernaiz before the game tomorrow.