Tag: A’s

Ohtani throws gas in MLB pitching debut; A’s fall to the Angels again

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Photo courtesy of Kelley L. Cox/USA Today

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–For a minute, it appeared as if the A’s had a handle on Shohei Ohtani in his major league pitching debut.

For a minute.

In the opening weekend series finale, Ohtani became the first big leaguer to have a starting offensive assignment and pitch as a starter within 10 games of his debut since Babe Ruth. But Ohtani made sure that history was just a jumping off point as he threw high 90’s gas throughout and struck out three the first four batters he faced swinging.

Then Ohtani struggled to execute breaking pitches–an issue for the Japanese import in spring training–and Matt Chapman seized the opening with a three-run homer that gave the A’s a brief 3-2 lead in the second inning.

Did we mention high 90’s gas? After allowing Chapman’s home run, Ohtani leaned heavily on his fastball-splitter combo, retiring 14 of the final 15 batters he faced.

Add 13 hits to Ohtani’s mini-gem and the Angels 7-4 win felt more lopsided and assured than it was.

“You can see how he can get hitters out, not just the velocity but all his pitches,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “He used everything. Outside of one stretch of three hitters in the second inning, that’s about as well as you can pitch.”

Cozart comfortable all over the diamond as the Angels cruise past the A’s

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Photo of Angels’ Zack Cozart courtesy of mlb.com

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–Zack Cozart has some history at the Coliseum, just none as eventful as his first 72 hours as a member of the Angels.

After seven seasons as a shortstop with the Reds, Cozart opted to sign a three-year deal with the Angels and all the uncertainty that comes with it. So far, the uncertainty of what position he’ll play, and where he’ll hit has been quite motivational for Cozart.

On Saturday, as Anaheim’s second baseman hitting leadoff, Cozart led the Angels past the A’s 8-3, with a pair of hits and two runs batted in. Cozart filled in at third base for Ian Kinsler, who landed on the disabled list before the game.

A’s starter Daniel Mengden allowed runs in four of the six plus innings he worked, and trailed 7-0 at one point. But Mengden wasn’t solely culpable as the A’s defense behind him committed an error and several misplays. While Mengden wasn’t as sharp as he was to finish 2017, he wasn’t far off, according to manager Bob Melvin.

“Hopefully we put that one away, because obviously the defense got a lot better as the game went along, but Mengden didn’t deserve the fate that he got,” Melvin said.

Khris Davis got the start in left field, and Rene Rivera’s line drive in the third eluded his glove for two-base error. Two other defensive lapses would follow and the A’s fell into a 3-0 hole early.

In the sixth, Cozart doubled, scoring Rivera and Jefry Marte. Mike Trout–who had three hits–followed with a well-placed single, scoring Cozart, and the Angels led 6-0.

Cozart’s double and triple gave him a cycle through the first three games of the season and an early .357 batting average. He hit leadoff on Opening Day and had three hits, including a home run. He hit fifth on Friday, moving from third to second during the game. All of the activity dwarfed Cozart’s previous appearance at the Coliseum, a pair of hitless interleague games for the Reds in 2013.

“Usually I just show up to the park and I know I’m playing shortstop,” Cozart said. “Now it’s different, but I kind of knew what my role was going to be: starting third baseman, but just in case, second base, shortstop, whatever. It’s just unfortunate that Kins got a little banged up and now I’m playing second for a little bit.”

Matt Shoemaker held the A’s offense in check for five innings before a three-run sixth made things competitive. Shoemaker was mostly good, and some bad, starting 17 batters with a strike, but walking four. Manager Mike Scioscia opted to remove his starter after Stephen Piscotty singled home a pair of runs in the sixth. But Cam Bedrosian came on to limit the damage, striking out Boog Powell to end the inning.

“We’re one swing away from tying it,” manager Bob Melvin recounted. “So it was good that we battled back-sitting at a 7-0 deficit and we continued to fight back, the attributes you want to see–but we dug ourselves too big of a hole.”

The A’s conclude the opening series on Sunday at 1:05pm with Daniel Gossett facing international sensation Shohei Ohtani, in his first major league pitching assignment.

 

A’s ready for season opener, but the roster remains a work in progress

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By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–At least to start the 2018 season, Andrew Triggs is up and in the starting rotation, and Trevor Cahill is headed out.

Given all the upheaval on the A’s roster, things could change quickly. For wackiness sake, Harvey the Rabbitt could supplant Stomper as the team’s most valuable mascot. Given that, don’t write Triggs and Cahill’s name in ink.

Triggs came to spring training with hopes to land a starting assignment, but did so only because top-prospect A.J. Puk, Jharel Cotton and Paul Blackburn have landed on the disabled list. Puk and Cotton aren’t likey to return this season, and Blackburn is at least a couple of weeks away while his strained forearm recovers.

For manager Bob Melvin, the injuries mean other options have to be handy. Former A’s Cahill and Brett Anderson are part of that mix, a pair of familiar faces originally signed for a look-see.

Cahill pitched three scoreless innings on Tuesday in the team’s exhibition season finale, striking out four. Melvin said stretching out Cahill in an effort to prepare him to start at some point is the goal. Anderson’s path is murkier. He’s still in Arizona working out, and hasn’t thrown in any games, but along with Cahill, the pair provide intriguing options given the fragile nature of the rotation.

“At this point, he looks to be the depth,” Melvin said of Cahill. “It’s one of the reasons we signed him is the injuries we’ve had. He looked good.”

For example, Triggs, currently the fourth option in the rotation, hasn’t blown anyone’s socks off: he started Tuesday and threw three plus innings, allowing all three runs in the A’s 3-0 loss. For the spring, Triggs was 2-2 with a 4.81 ERA over 24 innings.

Melvin was tight-lipped about the club’s outfield situation with Boog Powell and Dustin Fowler bidding to start, and Mark Canha batlling for a roster spot. He said an announcement regarding the entire 25-man roster would come Tuesday.

The A’s open at home on Thursday against the Angels at 1:05 p.m.

Cotton, Trienen pitch the A’s past the mistake-prone Astros

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Oakland Athletics’ Boog Powell (3) greets Marcus Semien (10) at home plate as the pair scored on throwing errors against the Houston Astros in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017, in Houston. (AP Photo/Richard Carson)

By Morris Phillips

Talk about a full day’s work. The A’s beat the AL West-leading Astros and had to confront a bunch of their demons in the process.

After dropping the first two games of the series, and 12 of 14 this season, and 35 of 52 over the last three seasons to the Astros, the A’s had seen enough. And that disgust showed in the A’s focused, determined effort on Sunday.

The two biggest issues–anemic offense and bullpen failures–against Houston got the most attention. The A’s got plenty of help with their offense by way of the Astros’ sloppy defensive play which contributed two runs in the first on a pair of throwing errors that allowed Marcus Semien to circle the bases with Boog Powell scoring ahead of him.

Emboldened by a 2-0 lead, starter Jharel Cotton posted his best outing since late June, pitching into the seventh inning, allowing just four hits and two runs. Only Marwin Gonzales’ solo shot in the seventh showed Cotton off his game, as he worked effectively primarily with his fastball and changeup.

All of the good fortune through seven innings gifted the A’s a 3-2 lead, which–from the Astros perspective–had the visitors right where they wanted them.

In the last three years, dating back to August 2014, the A’s have blown 15 saves in games against the Astros, far too much heartbreak for one team to inflict on another. No Oakland reliever has gone unscathed in that period, bringing us to Sunday, with Chris Hatcher and Blake Trienen getting their first significant roles versus the American League’s best team.

 

Three the hard way: Trio of solo shots holds up, A’s avoid the sweep in New York

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Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell, left, congratulates Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Santiago Casilla (46) after Casilla earned a save by closing out the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Sunday, July 23, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

By Morris Phillips

You do what you can do, right?

The A’s don’t score many runs, don’t get a lot of hits, and they don’t do any better when the odds are supposedly stacked in their favor with runners on base poised to score.

For that matter, the A’s strike out too much, commit too many errors, and don’t like facing lefties, National Leaguers, or playing day games. But for the most part, all that stuff is actually part of a different story.

For this story, the A’s needed to overcome their run-scoring limitations and find a way to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Mets on Sunday. And they did just that by relying on something that they do well: hitting home runs with the bases empty.

Oakland got solo shots from Marcus Semien, Khris Davis and the game-winner from Matt Chapman in the seventh to edge the Mets, 3-2 at Citi Field in New York. The A’s avoided the sweep and improved their American League-worst road victory total to 16.

But by winning by the narrowest of margins, the A’s also buried a weekend of demons in which they were narrowly defeated Friday and on Saturday, after their 5-0 lead evaporated in the final, four innings.

“We’ve gotten worn down here a little bit these first two games here where we had some leads and they came back, so it was good the guys kept grinding and kept responding,” manager Bob Melvin admitted.

This time, the A’s worked through an hour-long rain delay, and the loss of 1-0 and 2-1 leads. And with the game on the line, reliever Santiago Casilla retired three of the four Mets he faced to earn his 16th save.

The A’s have battled their youth and inexperience all season as reflected in their below-standard positioning in numerous, statistical categories. But hitting homers is one thing this club does well, hitting 134 of them in 98 games. Mets starter Rafael Montero had to be aware of the A’s proficiency with the long ball coming in, but not overly concerned. Montero had allowed just two home runs in his 45 innings pitched this season.

All that concern for Montero was heightened two batters into Sunday’s game. First, Semien launched Montero’s elevated offering into the left field seats. Then in the fourth, Davis hit his team-leading 28th home run to give the A’s a 2-1 lead. After the first two round trippers, 59 percent (80 of 136) of the A’s homers had come with the bases empty.

“Those home runs, when they occurred, that’s because I kept the ball too high,” Montero conceded.

A’s starter Daniel Gossett came in with just one win on the season–like Montero–but unlike his Mets’ counterpart, he was able to change his storyline on Sunday.  Gossett allowed five hits and two runs in his six innings of work to earn the win. Gossett addressed his won-loss record and his personal safety in the fifth when he stabbed Curtis Granderson’s liner through the box to end the inning.

The A’s open a four-game set in Toronto on Monday night. Chris Smith goes for his first, big league win in a matchup with Francisco Liriano at 4:07pm.

Still the King: Mariners Hernandez brings A’s first half to a quiet end

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Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez turns and lets out a yell after striking out Oakland Athletics’ Jed Lowrie to end the top of the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 9, 2017, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

By Morris Phillips

One of the worst pre-All Star break runs in Oakland A’s history wouldn’t be complete without a contribution from King Felix.

Consider the A’s first half complete.

The 31-year old Felix Hernandez has maintained a hex on the A’s for more than a decade, winning 24 times in 45 career starts, a roll that continued on Sunday with the Mariners 4-0 win in which Hernandez and four relievers shut down the A’s, allowing just two hits.

The A’s concluded the first half with a 39-50 record, the ninth-worst record at the break in the team’s Oakland history. Despite winning four of five coming in, and Hernandez attempting to reinvent himself after a string of injuries, the A’s and their nemesis experienced deja vu once Hernandez took the mound on Sunday.

Hernandez walked three, struck out a season-best eight, and threw 100 pitches in subduing the A’s for six innings. It mattered little that Hernandez has struggled this season, spending nearly two months inactive due to shoulder bursitis. In just his fourth start since coming off the disabled list, Hernandez pitched as if it were old times.

“That’s absolutely the best we’ve seen him all year,” Mariners’ manager Scott Servais said. “He was locked in, had all his pitches working. He just had a different look about him today and that’s what guys that have had the career he’s had, they can turn up the dial a little bit.”

The A’s were limited to Matt Joyce’s double in the third inning, and Jaycob Brugman’s single in the fifth while facing Hernandez. The quartet of relievers following the King were even more stingy, gifting the A’s with a pair of walks, and no hits.

The A’s came into the first half finale, hitting just .197 in their previous 10 games, a stretch hardly masked by the perfume of four wins in their previous five games.

 

Complete Turnaround: A’s sweep White Sox, Gray, offense, defense sharp

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Oakland Athletics’ Adam Rosales celebrates with teammates after hitting a solo home run against the Chicago White Sox during the ninth inning of a baseball game Sunday, June 25, 2017, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

By Morris Phillips

Like Dave, Ricky, Jose, Mark and Eck, the young A’s weren’t bad early, then seized control late, both at the plate and on the mound in Chicago on Sunday.

Throwback uniforms prompted the 1990 nostalgia but the improving A’s provided the thump in Oakland’s 5-3 win over the White Sox.

The A’s completed the sweep with Sonny Gray starting and allowing just four hits, and Santiago Casilla earning the save despite allowing a solo shot to Melky Cabrera. Offensively, the A’s got home runs from Matt Joyce and Adam Rosales, and two hits from four consecutive hitters near the top of their starting lineup led by Franklin Barreto.

The A’s swept on the road for the first time since September, and significantly increased their road win total, which was only nine coming into the weekend.  What’s more, the post midseason purge A’s looked improved in the process.

“We really put together three solid games here,” said Gray, who pitched seven innings, struck out seven, walked one. “We got big hits when we needed to, our starting pitching was really good, and our bullpen was really good. Hopefully that’s something we can continue to do.”

Gray’s fifth consecutive start of at least five innings, with at least five strikeouts naturally increases his trade value as a talented, trade-deadline added starter for a club with postseason aspirations, but at what return? The resurgent A’s, winners of seven of their last 11, all of a sudden have plenty of emerging players, but don’t necessarily have another Gray. Could they betray their familiar pattern, and lock Gray up to a pricey deal instead?

Maybe, given what the team’s shown lately.

Barreto capped an impressive beginning to his big league career with two knocks, a run scored, and a loud out on his final at-bat, 390-foot ride to the centerfield warning track that was snagged by Adam Engel. Barreto’s drive came off a Chris Beck sinker, and had the reliever thinking the worst off the swing of the bat.

The conclusion? Barreto, in only his second big-league start, can swing it. His presence in A’s lineups of the near future feels foregone after his impressive debut.

“We do like the fact that he’s up here and he’s getting a chance at the big leagues, getting a taste of this,” manager Bob Melvin said.

Derek Holland pitched into the seventh inning with a 2-0 White Sox lead, but the A’s rallied with a single run in the seventh, two in the eighth, and two more in the ninth.

Barreto’s leadoff single in the eighth preceded RBI singles by Khris Davis and Yonder Alonso, giving the A’s their first lead. In the ninth, Joyce and Rosales provided cushion with consecutive home runs. The A’s rally marked the first time the White Sox had blown a lead in the seventh inning or later this season.

With the loss, the White Sox have dropped six of seven, and are a season-worst 10 games under .500.

The A’s allowed just five runs in the three-game sweep. On Sunday, they produced a rare, errorless effort as well, while Chicago’s Matt Davidson’s throwing error boosted Oakland’s two-run eighth inning.

On Tuesday, the A’s get another shot at AL leader Houston at Minute Maid Park. Sean Manaea gets the start, looking for his seventh win.

 

 

A’s muscle up, club four home runs in a rout of the Nationals

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By Morris Phillips

Mired in a funk, stuck in last place, and headed nowhere fast, the A’s came out swinging on Saturday.

And this time, all that swinging had the desired effect on the outcome of the game, as the A’s rolled to a 10-4 win over the Nationals that ended a rough week of six losses in seven games.

With one-third of the season in the books, the A’s have firmly established themselves among the AL’s best home run hitting clubs with 82 homers in 55 games. But hitting home runs has not translated into winning games: after Saturday’s victory, the A’s are just 23-21 when they hit at least one home run.

In fact, not hitting home runs is a truer indicator for these A’s: only once in 55 games have they won without a home run. Oakland’s 1-10 when hitting no home runs.

When you don’t catch the ball, pitch consistently, or hit for average, yeah, even the game’s most powerful act can get obscured. That just wasn’t the case on Saturday: Ryon Healy and Jed Lowrie homered in the first inning off former Athletic Tyson Ross’ younger brother, Joe Ross, and the A’s cruised past the NL East leaders.

Healy would go on to homer a second time in the seventh, and smash a pair of doubles, all part of the best all-around day of his career. Afterwards, manager Bob Melvin said the performance shows why he so bullish on his young infielder: Healy’s passionate, plenty emotional, but resilient and a authentic student of the game.

“It’s been a little bit of a tough time for him, especially defensively,” Melvin said. “But then (Healy) ends up making a great tag on what ends up being a big out at third on the replay. He’s a tough-minded kid, got a lot of ability, but still kind of new at the big league level, still developing, but boy, he can really hit.”

Healy’s feat of four extra bases in one game hadn’t been accomplished by an Oakland player since July 2009 by Matt Holliday. And he was on everything: he took advantage of hitters’ counts on three of his hits, but he also rapped reliever Jacob Turner’s 0-2, 96 mph fastball for a double in the fifth.  In the seventh, with Turner laboring through a fourth inning of relief, Healy sent his batting practice fastball careening off the center field camera platform.

“You can’t miss good pitches to hit,” Healy said.

In the seventh, Daniel Murphy doubled off Daniel Coulombe, and was initially ruled safe at third, ahead of a bang-bang tag by Healy. But the review revealed the opposite, and Murphy was ruled out, short circuiting a Nats’ rally, with them trailing by three runs at that point.

The A’s registered a season-high ten runs, one day after losing by ten to red-hot Washington. Starter Daniel Mengden benefited by Bryce Harper’s final game of suspension, and a day off for hard-hitting Anthony Rendon, which weakened the lineup of baseball’s highest-scoring team. Still, Mengden ran into trouble in the fifth, when he was lifted with a pair of runners aboard, and Adam Lind–who had connected for a three-run homer earlier–coming up.

With reliever Liam Hendricks on the mound, Lind walked to load the bases, but Michael Taylor struck out to end the inning.  Hendricks pitched the sixth as well, and picked up the win.

On Sunday, the A’s have Sonny Gray on the mound in a matchup with the Nats’ Tanner Roark at 1:05pm.

A’s inability to defend, shut down Red Sox’s running game costs them a four-game sweep

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By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–On Saturday, the A’s were Murderer’s Row. On Sunday, the same nine guys populated the starting lineup, but the collective was something far less, the difference between an easy win the first day, and a lopsided loss the next.

The change? The A’s defense took a rest.

Aided by three Oakland errors and several misplays, the Red Sox rebounded, avoiding a four-game sweep with a 12-3 whipping of the A’s at the Coliseum.

“Coming in here you say, ‘Give us three of four, we’ll take it.’ Granted, once you win three games, you get greedy and want to win the last game,” manager Bob Melvin said.  “And it felt like we had them on the run a little bit. And then they get the lead, and we come back and take the lead again, and you feel pretty good. But they were pretty persistent today.”

Persistence was the sum of 15 Red Sox base hits, four stolen bases and a trio of two-out RBI knocks, more than enough to overcome the A’s brief 3-2 lead after four innings.  Boston would take the lead for good with two runs in the fifth. They added on with two in the sixth, one in the eighth, and five more in the ninth.

Eduardo Rodriguez pitched a season-best eight innings, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk, to grab the win. Rodriguez shedded the hard luck label he’s worn thus far this season as five of his previous eight starts left him with a no-decision.  For Red Sox Nation, likely inconsolable after three straight losses, Rodriguez was everything and more for a rotation that hasn’t had David Price all season, and has watched Rick Porcello struggle.

“We’ve seen it now on this road trip (in) the two starts for Eddie,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said of his starting pitcher. “It’s been the fifth and sixth innings have been keys for him where we’ve scored, he’s gone out and had quick innings, shutdown innings. And I think that’s been huge for him in his evolution as a pitcher.”

A’s starter Andrew Triggs didn’t pitch poorly, but his inability to slow Boston on the basepaths cost him, as much as the ragged defense behind him.

In the sixth, Triggs allowed a two-run shot to Mitch Moreland, the 19th time the former Texas Ranger has homered against the A’s in his career.  Earlier, the second batter of the game, Dustin Pedroia hit a bloop single down the line, but it turned into much more when Mark Canha fielded it in right, spun towards second base and threw the ball to no one. That allowed Pedroia to take second base, and allowed baserunner Mookie Betts to score the game’s first run from first base.

Chad Pinder would misplay a grounder in the second, and catcher Josh Phegley later unleashed a poor throw, increasing the A’s errors to a major league-worst 42.

Triggs walked three as well, and didn’t do much of a job holding runners on base. Those missteps had Boston running at every opportunity, and as a result the A’s saw their AL-worst total in opponents’ stolen bases jump to 38.

“Today, I was being a little bit too fine. I let guys get on base, and then from there you’re not wanting to let things to compound like they did on the Moreland homer,” Triggs said. “I was trying to be a little bit too fine.”

The homering A’s made a cameo appearance in the fourth when Chad Pinder went deep for the second straight day.  Pinder’s two-run shot wasn’t the once-in-a-generational bomb he hit Saturday, but it came off Rodriguez, who dealt other than that moment, and gave the A’s a lead.

For Melvin, the issue is simple.  His A’s lead the AL in home runs with 64 after 44 games, but of the team’s top seven home run threats, five are below average defenders.  All five–Trevor Plouffe, Ryon Healy, Khris Davis, Pinder and Canha–were in the A’s lineup on Sunday when the errors, mental gaffes and miscues snowballed.

Jed Lowrie and Yonder Alonso, the two plus defenders on the list, will occasionally lose playing time to Pinder and Healy, due to the latter pair’s youth and promise.  In the short run, that factor also weakens the A’s defense.

A lot to ponder for Melvin and Billy Beane as they chart the direction of the team.

On Tuesday, the A’s resume their homestand against the Miami Marlins with Jessie Hahn facing the Marlins’ Jose Urena at 7:05 pm.

All of a sudden, and out of nowhere, Oakland is the epicenter for home runs win 8-3; A’s take three straight from Sox in four game series

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By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND-The first home run, off Mark Canha’s bat, was a blast. The media address would soon label it 453 feet in length.

Khris Davis, the guy most likely to have role in such a gargantuan display, launched his next, over the centerfield wall. A majestic shot that bounced off the support for the centerfield camera deck, Davis’ shot with a runner aboard gave the A’s a sixth-inning lead.

Holy Toledo! The familiar refrain flashed on that new neon display just a few feet behind where Davis’ ball came to rest.

Then two batters later, Chad Pinder tagged the longest home run measured in the big leagues this season, and one of a handful of the biggest home runs in the history of the Oakland Coliseum at 460 feet, then measured by a different system as 485 feet.

Three monster home runs, more than a quarter-mile in length, in one inning? Even with the reaction within the stadium muted due to the heavy presence of Red Sox fans, the display felt like the second coming of the Bash Brothers.

“It seems like they got longer and longer,” manager Bob Melvin said after being relegated to a vantage point in front of a big-screen TV following a second inning ejection. “Canha crushed that ball. K.D., we’ve seen it, and the Pinder one, I don’t even know how to explain that.”

Pinder, the sneaky tall and freakishly strong author of the mega homer, couldn’t add much to Melvin’s explanation, but just like the saying, his soft speaking accompanies his big bat.

“It’s one of those swings where you kind of just black out,” Pinder said. “You see it and you hit it, and you don’t know what happens after.”

Well, compared to the how, the what is easy. A conundrum of clout, built on an impressive platform of power, that being the 25 home runs the A’s hit in their previous 13 games, the outburst of three prodigious blasts in one inning announced the mostly youthful A’s collection of sluggers as the American League’s undeniable, new source of power.

Now, 43 games into the season, the A’s, not the mighty Yankees, lead the senior circuit in home runs with 63.  And it’s not just the toy tank, Davis, or the suddenly powerful Yonder Alonso.  It’s Canha, finally regaining his health, it’s Ryon Healy, it’s the timeless, sneaky power of Jed Lowrie.

And Pinder? Deserving of a category of his own.

“It’s not a surprise,” Melvin said. “Everyone we have in development, from our hitting coaches to the managers that have had him, rave about him. He’s a bat, for sure. It’s finding a position for him. It might be the versatility and playing some outfield that ends up being the right spot for him. But he can hit, and he’s done it everywhere he’s gone.”

Pinder’s homer came without a toe tap, or repositioning of his feet, making it a feat of upper body strength.  The swing was violent, the pitch poorly executed, and the flight of the ball otherworldly. It landed above the lowest level of outfield suites, in the middle third of the seats within Mount Davis.

Reminiscent of home runs hit by Larry Walker in 1999, and the Giants’ Jarrett Parker of the Giants in last year’s Bay Bridge Series, Pinder’s shot made an impression. Capping a five-run fifth, it helped turn a one-run deficit into an A’s 7-3 lead, and made an impression on the struggling Red Sox, who have dropped three straight in Oakland, after winning both games in an abbreviated series in St. Louis.

Sean Manaea outlasted former Athletic Drew Pomeranz to earn the win, with Manaea slogging through five innings, and Pomeranz lasting just four, but needing 97 pitches to get there.  Manaea didn’t walk anybody, but did allow a home run to Hanley Ramirez.

The pitching star for the A’s undoubtedly was Frankie Montas, who followed Manaea with three innings of scoreless relief. Melvin lauded Montas after the game as a guy who’s establishing himself as a reliable, versatile arm out of the bullpen. Montas had his breaking pitches going–along with his signature 100 mph heater–in striking out five of the 11 batters he faced.

The A’s look for the rare, four-game sweep on Sunday with Andrew Triggs on the mound. Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez goes for the Sox, a fill-in for a Boston rotation that is currently without David Price.