Category: MLB

The Oakland A’s starter James Kaprielian went seven innings of shutout ball against the Seattle Mariners at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed May 26, 2021 (AP News photo)

Seattle 3 – 7 – 0

Oakland 6 – 8 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Wed May 26, 2021

OAKLAND–If any consolation is to be found in Tuesday night’s dismal 4-3 defeat of the Oakland A’s (29-22) by the Seattle Mariners (23-27), it would be the, at least temporary, resurgence of Oakland’s bullpen. Burch Smith, Reymin Gudjuan, Sergio Romo, and Lou Trivino combined to allow Seattle only one hit over 4-1/3 innings of relief.

It also was encouraging that Elvis Andrus, who brought a .174 BA to the game, went three for four. It’s been a pleasant surprise that the Athletics, who by many statistical measurements should be in the middle of the pack, are the front runners in the AL West.

Wednesday, the task of stopping the A’s three game losing streak (one to the cellar dwelling Angeles and two to the Mariners) and protecting the team’s slim place at the top of the division rankings fell to James Kaprielian (1-0, 2.53), who looked very good in his first major league start on May 12 in Fenway Park, when he held the Red Sox to one run on five hits over five innings, which earned him his first, and so far only, MLB win. Kaprielian held the Mariners to seven scoreless innings in the A’s 6-3 win at the Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday.

Last Friday, he pitched well against the Angels in Anaheim and left the game with a 3-2 after 5-2/3 frames, when Yusmeiro Petit relieved him following a bases empty home run by Jared Walsh. That resulted in Petit’s only blown save so far this season.

Before today, Kaprielian had faced Seattle once, at the tail end of the 2020 season when he allowed his three inherited runners to score as well as giving up two earned runs of his own in 1 2/3 of an inning of hard labor.

Countering for Seattle on the mound was another righty, also a relative newcomer, Robert Dugger (0-0,4.15), whose major league resumé before this year consisted of 46 innings pitched for Miami over the course of the 2019 and ’20 seasons. In his most recent start, Duggger threw three scoreless frames for Seattle, in which he struck out four Cleveland batters, walked one, and didn’t allow any hits.

It was clear early on this woould be neither a hitless nor scoreless outing for Dugger. After Mark Canha’s lead off walk Dugger struck out Matt Olson and walked Ramón Laureano. Seth Brown then one-hopped the left field wall with an automatic double that drove in Canha and sent Laureano to third. He scored from there on Matt Chapman’s sacrifice fly to left, giving Kaprielian a two run lead to work with after an inning of play.

Olson gave him another when he led off the third with a towering that landed just over the right field fence in front of the Budweiser section. The blow, his 13th homer and 28th RBI. of the year, came off a 90 mph four seamer on a 2-2 count.

Karprielian got his first eight hitters out before yielding a base on balls to José Godoy (BA .111) and didn’t give up a hit until, two batters later, in the top of the fourth, Mitch Heniger lofted a soft fly to right for a single. That began Karprielian’s first bout of difficulties.

He struck out Seager, but an authoritative single to center moved Heniger to second, and, with, those two on base, Chapman lost JP Crawford’s foul pop up in the sun, extending the Mariners’ shortstop’s turn at bat. Karprielian overcame that obstacle by getting Crawford to fly out to left. A full count walk to Ty France loaded the bases with two out brought Donovan Walton to the plate.

He hit Kapdrielian’s first offering hard to second, where Tony Kemp made a nifty play to throw him out at first. With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Dugger gave up a single to Andrus and plunked García with a 71 mph curve. That was it for the youngster today.

Wyatt Miles was called upon to face the top of the Oakland batting order. He began by walking Canha on five pitches to load the bases. Olson followed up with a sacrifice fly to deep left center on which the centerfielder, Lewis, made an extremely nice play, bringing in Oakland´s fourth tally. Laudreanós Texas League single to left center plated García and sent Canha to third.

Both runners Mills had inherited now had scored, but Oakland wasn’t through with him yet. Seth Brown’s single to center brought Canha with the A’s sixth run, which was charged to Mills’ account. A wild pitch to Chapman advanced both runners a base, and a walk to the A’s third baseman reloaded the bases. But Seager made a nice play on Piscotty’s grounder to third, and the A’s had to settle for a six run lead.

Dugger hadn’t pitched well but not as poorly as his line indicated. It came to five runs, all earned, in 3-1/3 innings on five hits, a hit batter, and three walks. He had a strike out to his credit and had thrown 59 pitches, 38 for strikes, including one for a home run.

A long inning like that, in which Oakland batted around, can make the pitcher it benefits pay a price; his arm stiffens up. But Kaprielian set the Mariners down in order in the fifth.

Mills hung around for another inning, giving up an infield single to Andrus but escaping with a double play on a liner to second by García that left Andrus no time to scramble back to first. Anthony Misliewicz took over mound duties for Seattle in the sixth. Yohan Ramírez followed him for the seventh.

Yusmeiro Petitt made his 25th appearance of ´21 to replace Kaprielian after seven innings of two hit shut out ball by the A’s starter, who struck out four and walked two. His pitch count reached 94, 61 strikes. He went on to get the win, bringing his record to 2-0, 1.53).

Petit allowed three runs to score. Eric Campbell opened the inning with single to left center. An Ernie Lombardi single (off the fence) to right by Godoy moved him to third. He scored on Kelenic hard ground out to Olson unassisted.

Then Heniger doubled to left center and scored on Seager’s single to left. That was the end of Petit’s outing. On 27 pitches, he surrendered four hits and still was responsible for the runner on first when Jake Diekman came in to save Petit’s bacon, which he did by striking out Crawford and hanging around to pitch the ninth and earn his sixth save of the season in spite of allowing a hit and a walk in the final frame.

Oakland’s precarious purchase on first place will survive another day no matter what happens Wednesday night in Houston between the Astros and tlhe Dodgers.

The A’s will play the Angels at 6:40 Thursday evening with Chris Bassitt (4-2, 3.69) going against RHP Shohei Ohtani (1-0, 2.37) in the first of a four game series.

Oakland A’s starter Cole Irvin delivers a pitch in the top of the second inning against the Seattle Mariners at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue May 25, 2021 (AP News photo)

Seattle 4 – 11 – 1

Oakland 3 – 8 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Tue May 25, 2021

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s (28-22) lost their third straight game on Tuesday night to the Seattle Mariners (23-26) 4-3 but first Let’s start with a quick look at the American League West standings at the start of play on Tuesday.

Oakland, at 28-21, leads Houston by a game, followed by Seattle, Texas, and Los Angeles, five and half, six, and seven games behind the A’s, respectively.

Now, let’s look at some team statistics. The Athletics had a team batting average of .226 and an OPS of .723. The Astro’s were .270, tops in the majors, and .762, second only to the Red Sox. The Mariners were hitting an anemic .199 and .639, the lowest in both categories in all of MLB. The Rangers’ BA was .235; their OPS, .692. And the Angels came in at .247, .723.

I’ll list only ERA and WHIP for the pitching stats. They are

Oakland 4.27, 1.31 Houston 3.79, 1.19 Seattle 4.58, 1.31 Texas 4.25, 1.34 Los Angeles 5.25, 1.46.

This superficial glance at the stats indicates that, the narrow gap between the A’s and the Astros in the standings aside, the home team has a pretty insecure place in the AL West pecking order. That’s why Cam Bedrosian’s two inning stint of shut out relief work last night and the news that Jesús Luzardo soon will embark on a rehab assignment come as rays of hope for the latter part of the season.

For the immediate future, the numbers of Seattle’s starting pitcher for tonight, Logan Gilbert, 0-2, 9.45, made the A’s prospects at game time brighter than they might otherwise have been. Just remember, however, that the 6’6″, 225 pound right hander, turned 24 only a couple of weeks ago, and was the Mariners’ first round draft choice in 2018.

He has only one year of professional baseball experience and spent last season in the Mariners’ alternate site. Sometimes an inexperienced youngster of talent can baffle veteran batters who are used to more sophisticated adversaries.

The A’s sent Cole Irvin (3-5, 3.59), who had felt embarrassed about his performance last Thursday against the Astros. As well he might. He gave up five of Houston’s runs in an 8-4 loss to the visitors, and he did it in only five innings.

Indeed, Irvin has been so bad against Houston and so good against everybody else that if you factor the ‘stros out of his numbers, you find that Irvin has a record of 3-1, 1.89 and his opponents’ BA is a stingy .218. Although only one AL hurler had been charged with more losses than Irvin, dawn broke this morning with only 14 having a lower ERA. Tonight was his maiden voyage against the Mariners.

Bomel gave Matt Chapman a respite from his duties at the hot corner, playing Chad Pinder there in his stead. Pinder is a compitent defender at seven different positions, but he’s no Matt Chpaman, and the difference cost the A’s a couple of runs in the top of the first.

With two on and none out, Kyle Lewis hit a bounder behind third. Pinder fielded it cleanly, stepped on the bag, and threw to first. Late. Instead of a runner on second and two out, Seattle had men on first and second with one down.

Kyle Seager’s grounder to Elvis Andrus in the shift, moved both runners up, which allowed Mitch Haniger, the lead runner, to score on another grounder to third. Pinder made a nice try to corral the ball but couldn’t get handle on it. JP Crawford’s single to center drove in Lewis. And that’s how the A’s came to their first inning at bat trailing 2-0.

Seattle’s rookie set the A’s down in order in that frame, and Irvin, helped by a stellar grab of a line drive that Pinder grabbed before it could fall for extra bases, returned the compliment.

It was in the bottom of the second that Oakland struck back. Matt Olson led off with a sinking, slicing liner to left that Jarred Kelenic couldn’t handle and which landed safely for a two base hit. The next batter, Jed Lowrie, slotted as the DH, smacked a 95 mph fast ball off the left center field fence to plate Olson.

It looked as though Gilbert might wiggle out of his predicament, retiring Sean Murphy and Pinder, but Tony Kemp, who’s wielded a hot bat for the past ten games, came through with an RBI single to right on a count of 0-2, to knot up the score. The A’s threatened to take the lead when Elvis Andrus followed Kemp with another single to right, putting him in scoring position at second, but Mark Canha flew out to medium deep right to end the rally.

Irvin, who had pitched in and out of trouble in the first and third, was in trouble again in the Seattle fourth. Crawford led off with a line drive double to left. Eric Cambell fanned. Tom Murphy smacked a double to left center, breaking the tie and, after Mayfield grounded out to Pinder, scored on Kelenic’s sharp single to right that got past a diving Olson. Haniger’s grounder to Pinder ended the frame with the A’s again trailing by two.

Irvin retired the first two Mariners he faced in the fifth, but back to back singles by France and Crawford led to his removal in favor of Burch Smith, who wilded pitched the runners up a notch each with Eric Campbell at the plate before walking him to load the bases. Then Tom Murphy flew out to right to end the inning.

Irvin’s line for the evening was four runs, all earned, on ten hits over 4-2/3 innings. He struck out two. and walked one. His pitch count was 73, with 50 counted as strikes. Burch Smith followed him with a scoreless inning and a third before yielding to Reymin Gudjuan, who retired the side in order in the seventh, who, in turn, would give way to Sergio Romo in the eighth, in which he retired the side in order, a welcome improvement over his recent disappointing performances.

When the A’s came up in their half of the sixth, Gilbert was gone. He’d thrown 78 pitches (51 strikes) over four innings, in which he allowed two runs, both earned, on four hits.

He didn’t walk anyone and struck out four. In his place was Paul Sewald, who immediately surrended a double to left center to Andrus. After Canha lined out softly to first, Sewald walked Brown on four pitches. Laureano hit a fly to deep left center, but Lewis hauled it down before Olson bounced out, 3-1 to end the threat.

Sewald continued to be effective in the sixth, striking out the three batters he faced, Lowrie, Murphy, and Pinder. JT Chargois took over for him in the seventh. After an inning and a third of frustration at Charois’ hand, the Athletics finally got someone in scoring position against Seattle’s pen when Laureano doubled to right center with one down in the eighth. This led immediately to Anthony Misiewcicz’s entry into the fray.

The lefty heaved a wild pitch to Olson that sent Laureano to third and then home when catcher Tom Murphy threw wildly into left field, closing the gap between the teams to a single run. Olson then walked and Lowrie struck out swinging, bringing up Sean Murphy.

Another wild pitch put Olson in scoring position. Oakland’s Murphy then lauched a towering drive to deep right center that Hanigar brought down with a leaping grab at the wall. It now was up to Lou Trivino, who entered the game to pitch the ninth, to hold the A’s deficit at one. Which he did on eight pitches.

The stage was set for a classic Oakland comeback, with Rafael Montero coming on to face the bottom third of the A’s batting order. He got Pinder on a ground out to short. He got Kemp on a pop up to short. Andrus, hitting all of .194, kept the A’s hopes alive with a single up the middle, bringing Canha, 0 for 4 for the night, to the plate.

With a ball and two strikes on him, he sent a ground single up the middle, bringing Andrus all the way to third and Brown to the plate. Montero jumped ahead of him, 0-2. Then Brown bounced the ball back to the mound, Montero grabbed it, and beat Brown to the bag.

The win went to Seward in relief. He now is 2-0. The save was credited to Montero, his sixth. Irvin was charged with his sixth loss.

The A’s still lead their division, thanks to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers, who handled Houston for them, 9-2. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Oakland hopes to salvage a win on Wednesday afternoon, when the rivals wrap up their three game series. First pitch is scheduled for 12:37. After that, the Angels come to town for a four game set before the green and gold set off on a seven day, six game trip to Denver and Phoenix.

The Seattle Marines starter Yusei Kikuchi throws against the Oakland A’s line up in the fifth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Mon May 24, 2021 (AP News photo)

Seattle 4 -6 – 0

Oakland. 2 – 5 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Mon May 24, 2021

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s began today in sole possession of first place in the American League West standings, thanks to an unexpected sweep by Texas of their three game series against their Lone Star rivals, the Houston Astros, with two of the Rangers’ victories coming in the bottom of the tenth.

Somebody is stealing the Athletics’ walk off thunder. Some also must have stolen their bullpen’s mojo because, once Sean Manaea had thrown his 98th pitch of the afternoon yesterday in Anaheim, keeping the Angels scoreless on no runs on four hits over give innings, the quartet of Burch Smith, Sergio Romo, Reymin Gudjuan, and Deolis Guerra combined to cough up six runs in the game’s remaining three frames the guys from Anaheim needed to make the Athletics bite the Angels Stadium dust.

What hurt most in the loss was the poor performance of Romo, who had seemed to be coming out of his doldrums during the A’s last home stand, and the nearly complete shut down of the Oakland offense after the third innings, when they scored the fourth of their eventual five tallies.

Oakland’s middle and late inning troubles did not bode well for tonight’s starter, Frankie Montás, (5-3, 4.79) whose longest outing so far this year had been six innings, a limit he reached in five of his nine starts, most recently on May 14, when he held the Twins to one run on four hits at Target Field. In his last start, on the 19th, he alllowed two runs on seven hits over five innings at the Coliseum.

Seattle’s starting pitcher, Ysei Kikuchi (2-3, 4.02) , arrived on the mound with an impressive history against the A’s. He made his MLB debut against them in the Tokyo Dome on March 21, 2019. That was the first time a Japanese pitcher began his big league career in his native land, an event that was overshadowed at the time by Ichiro’s retirement, which seldom took a back seat to anything else in The Egg during the two days of what was called The Ichiro Series.

He faced the A’s twice during last year’s abbreviated season, pitching a total of 12 innings, equally divided over two starts, of shutout ball against them.

Kikuchi’s best performance this year came on April 29 at Houston, when he held the Astros to one hit over seven innings in a 1-0 win over the ‘stros. In that game, he walked two and struck out seven. His worst outing took place at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox hammered him for five runs, all earned, on six hits in only 4-2/3 frames in a game the Mariners lost, 6-4.

His most recent appearance also resulted in a loss, 4-1 against the Tigers in Seattle a week ago. In it, he surrendered three (earned) runs on three hits and four walks in the course of his five innings pitched.

The Mariners got to Montás early, with a lead off walk to Jarred Kelenic followed by a run producing double by Mitch Haniger. One walk and three strike outs later, Montás had gotten himself out of trouble with minimal damage done, but the 27 pitches he’d thrown in the the game’s first inning gave warning of an early withdrawal from the bull pen bank down the line. Kyle Lewis’s fourth home run of the season, coming with Haniger on first with his second straight hit and two down in the third and landing behind the left field score board, stretched Seattle’s lead to 3-0.

Mark Canha shrunk that lead by a run with two out in the bottom of the frame, depositing a 97 mph Kikuchi four seamer over the 367 foot marker in right field for his tenth round tripper and 35th RBI of 2021. A nice running catch in right center by Lewis, playing center, ended what for a moment looked like the A’s chance to extend the inning.

Seattle was a victim of the Curse of the Lead Off Double in the fourth, leavilng Ty France stranded at second when Montás retired the bottom third of the Mariners´ order on two flies to right and a strike out. There is no Curse of the Lead Off Homer, so Seattle was up 4-1 after Jarred Kelenic slamed Montás´s second offering, a 94 mph sinker so hard over the right field fence that Piscotty just twisted around without taking a step as he watched it fly the last of the 414 feet it travelled.

Montás left the game after striking out the side in the top of the sixth. That gave him 11 for the game, the first time this year he reached double digits in the K column and the fourth time he achieved that level in his big league career. He threw 101 pitches, 67 for strikes, and was touched for four runs, all earned on six hits, two of which were four baggers, three walks, and a wild pitch. His ERA rose to 4.92, and he eventually was charged with the loss.

Cam Bedrosian, recently arrived from Las Vegas, made his return to the majors and his season’s debut in the seventh. He gave the A’s two innings of shut out relief, allowing only base runner, on a walk to Lewis. Bedrosian’s performance may have been the most important event for the Athletics in tonight’s contest, indicating that the weak spot in their bull pen well might have been reinforced.

Lowrie’s single to deep short to lead off the home seventh precipitated Kikuchi’s departure. He’d allowed one run on four hits, one of which left the park, and a pair of walks to go with his trio of strike outs. 59 of his 88 pitches weren’t balls. When the dust had settled, he was the winning pitcher. Rafael Montero replaced Kikkuchi on the mound and disposed of the A’s by fanning Chapman and getting Murphy to ground into an around the horn double play.

Montero wasn’t that successful in the Oakland eighth. Tony Kemp pinch hit for Piscotty and walked. Seth Brown pinch hit for Andrus and doubled Kemp home, narrowing Seattle’s advantage to 4-2. Erik Swanson relieved Montero and walked Canha, putting the potential tying run on base with no outs. But Pinder struck out swinging on an 86 mph slider, and Laureano went down flailing at a 95 mph fast ball. And Olson swung and missed at a 2-2 fast ball, also thrown at 95 mph.

That left it for Deolis Guerra to try to keep Seattle off the board in the top of the ninth and give the A’s a one last shot at a come from behind victory. Two flies to left and a grounder to Kemp, now playing second, and he’d done his job.

Kenan Middleton came in for Seattle to face, at the least, Lowrie, Chapman, and Murphy. Lowrie fouled out to Seager behind third. With the count at 2-2, on Chapman, Middleton got him to swing and miss on an 85 mph slider for out number two. An 86 mph change of pace on a 1-2 did Murphy in and earned Middleton his third save.

The A’s now stand at 28-21, still a game ahead of the idle Astros, who go up against the Dodgers tomorrow. Cole Irvin (3-5, 3.59) will try to right the A’s ship tomorrow at 6:40, going against Seattle’s Logan Gilbert (0-2, 9.45).