Oakland A’s starter Luis Media pitches to the Atlanta Braves line up in the bottom of the first inning at Truist Park in Cobb County on Sun Jun 2, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (24-37) only managed two hits in the third game of their series with the Atlanta Braves (33-24). Two hits will not get you very far against a tough opponent. Oakland did tie up the game in the seventh inning when Zach Gelof hit a home run but no offense was generated by the A’s after the long ball losing the game 3-1.

Game recap: The Braves took the early lead in the first inning when the ever dependable Matt Olson singled Marcell Ozuna home for a 1-0 tally. After the opening inning there was not a lot of offense for either team. Through six innings the Braves had only two hits and the A’s had a single hit.

Luis Medina went 5.2 innings allowing the two hits, 1 run, 2 walks with 6 strikeouts. He had a nice outing and was relieved by Brady Basso to close the fifth inning facing the final at bat for Atlanta, a tough one in lefty Matt Olson. Basso got the job done as Olson grounded out.

Atlanta pitcher Charlie Morton was pulled after six innings starting to struggle with too many balls and too many walks. He had walked five A’s and he was relieved by Dylan Lee in the seventh inning.

This was still anybody’s game and even more so in the seventh inning when the A’s had their first home run of the game off the bat of Zach Gelof and this game was tied 1-1. Conditions got a lot better when the rain had come to a halt and the ball park was soaked in sunshine to start the seventh inning.

The go-ahead run came when a pop- up ball in the seventh inning ended up landing on the line and Gelof was unable to catch it for the out. There was some confusion as to who would catch that pop-up and even if that ball was going to end up as a fair ball.

The hit landed on the line and enabled Marcell Ozuna to score breaking the tie and the Braves took a 2-1 lead. Atlanta did have the bases loaded but Austin Adams, who had relieved Brady Basso, got out of the inning minimizing the damage to just the one run.

Oakland was unable to tie up this game in the eighth, in fact, it was the Braves that got the insurance run they were looking for. They took a 3-1 lead when Ozzie Albies singled to right and J.P. Martinez scored. With two outs, Atlanta had the bases loaded threatening to add to their lead. Oakland relief pitcher Dany Jimenez got out of the inning and the A’s had one last inning to make some noise.

The A’s went quietly in the ninth inning with a Zach Gelof line out, a Kyle McCann ground out. and a Max Schuemann fly-out. The Braves had won the game 3-1 and the series.

Game recap: Sunday afternoon the A’s finished up their series with the Braves at a rainy Atruist Park as the Braves took the series. After a real slugfest Saturday that saw Oakland come out on top 11-9, the A’s were looking to win the series against the very tough Braves but just couldn’t finish the job and score as many runs like they did on Saturday. Medina pitched well enough giving up just giving up two hits for Oakland. The Braves Morton gave up only one hit for the win.

The A’s will now head back home with a day off on Monday before taking on Seattle Tuesday in a three-game series. Joey Estes will be on the hill for Oakland with a 1-1 win/loss record and a 6.10 ERA. The Mariners will send George Kirby to start with a 4-5 win/loss record and a 4.08 ERA first pitch 6:45pm PT.