Tag: A’s

Keuchel caps flawless April with a dominating performance against the A’s

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AP17120709956463

By Morris Phillips

The Astros’ Dallas Keuchel, quite simply, is the best starting pitcher in the AL West.  Manager Bob Melvin and the A’s are well aware of this not-so-new development, didn’t need any reminders, but they got one anyway on Sunday at Minute Maid Park.

Keuchel mowed down the A’s–he retired 10 consecutive batters, and 13 of 14 at one point–in the Astros’ 7-2 win in the series finale.  The 29-year old righthander improved to 5-0 in April, validation that Keuchel has made impressions on a number of teams, not just the A’s.

“He’s got four pitches, and you just try to grind on him a little bit and stay close to him,” Melvin said of Keuchel.  “Hopefully you can get him out of the game.”

The A’s did manage to get the Astro’s ace out of the ballgame, but manager A.J. Hinch’s hand wasn’t forced until their were two outs in the eighth inning and Houston held a 4-0 lead.  Keuchel had thrown 99 pitches at that point, allowing a two-out base hit to Adam Rosales, his final batter.

It was the fifth consecutive start in which Keuchel has registered a quality start and thrown at least seven innings. As a comparison, he was just 3-0 in April 2015, the beginning of his Cy Young Award-winning season.

“That’s probably the best command I have had in awhile,” Keuchel said. “I’m going to continue to attack the zone and get some early contact and let the defense work.”

The A’s dropped two of the three games in the series, but managed to end a five-game losing streak with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. The Astros solidified their lead in the division, capping April with a 16th win, only the third time in the history of their franchise that they’ve won 16 times in the season’s opening month.

The A’s have Monday off, before resuming their road trip in Minnesota on Tuesday.  Sonny Gray is expected to come off the disabled list and make his season debut in that one.

 

 

 

A’s come back to earth, five-game win streak ends in rout administered by the Mariners

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AP17113762259554By Morris Phillips

Lately, the Coliseum has been the place for offense. And it was again on Sunday, it just this time the offense didn’t involve the swinging A’s.

The Mariners took their frustrations out on A’s pitching in an 11-1 rout with five extra-base hits, including two homers highlighted by Taylor Motter’s first career grand slam.

Motter’s slam capped the Mariners’ five-run third inning and represented the first taste of adversity for A’s starter Andrew Triggs, who had not allowed an earned run in any of his first three starts.

Triggs fell into trouble in the third by allowing singles to Mitch Haniger and Mike Zunino.  He then walked Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz to force in a run. Motter followed with his slam on a 1-0 slider that grabbed too much of the plate and ended up beyond the left centerfield wall.

Triggs lasted just 4 2/3 innings and took his first loss of 2017, allowing six earned runs on five hits and the two, untimely third inning walks.

The loss snapped the A’s five-game win streak that catapulted them within hailing distance of the AL West-leading Astros.  The Mariners had dropped four of five, and their starter, Yovani Gallardo had never beaten the A’s in seven previous starts.

But on Sunday, the Mariners cruised and Gallardo was the catalyst.

“It was just a matter of putting everything together,” Gallardo said.

The A’s entered Sunday’s contest with an American League-leading 59 extra base hits, and 24 home runs, a nice start to the season for an offense that seemed likely to sputter on the heels of last season’s struggles.  But the A’s have shown pop thus far in 2017, just not on Sunday.

The A’s resume play on Tuesday in Anaheim against the Angels. Jesse Hahn takes the ball for Oakland in a matchup with the Angels’ JC Ramirez.

A’s undone by their own mistakes, drop finale in Texas, 8-1

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inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 9, 2017, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Mike Stone)

By Morris Phillips

The A’s lopsided loss to the Rangers to end the first week of the new season was another reminder of how things are done these days to win games at the major league level.

Hitters no longer focus on batting averages, or on-base percentages, or strikeout totals.  While those metrics still carry weight, nothing is more impactful than a big hit, or a big inning at the expense of those previously mentioned measures of a hitter’s consistency.  In many ways, it’s a philosophy that’s the polar opposite of Oakland’s Billy Ball, but one the A’s are acutely aware of nonetheless.

On Sunday at Globe Life Park, A’s starting pitcher Sean Manaea posted a couple of impressive totals, a career-best 10 strikeouts and just three hits allowed, but saw the Rangers undo his potential gem with two bold strokes.

First, Joey Gallo hit a three-run homer off Manaea in the second inning, taking advantage of the pitcher in a frame in which he had already thrown 20 pitches.  Not surprisingly, the inning started with a strikeout, but devolved when Ryan Rua and Robinson Chirinos picked up two-out base hits. With the runners aboard, Gallo deposited the first pitch he saw over the right field wall.

Gallo, a minor league call up that has had bits and pieces of action with the Rangers over the last three seasons, registered his first hit off a left-handed pitcher at the big league level in nearly two years.  Gallo’s blast traveled 400 feet, not surprising for a hulking slugger who hasn’t established himself for two reasons: his high strikeout rate, and the presence of future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre at his preferred position of third base. On Sunday, with Beltre on the disabled list, Gallo was in the lineup, showing the Texas brass that he can fight through the strikeouts, and get to the home runs.

“He understands he’s a big guy with big power, and he’s going to strike out,” Rangers’ manager Jeff Bannister said of Gallo. “He’s not overanalyzing any single at-bat.  It’s not the end of the game for him.”

So what transpired on Gallo’s next at-bat? Manaea struck him out, no surprise given the dynamics. But for Gallo’s third plate appearance in the sixth, Manaea was lifted after throwing just 86 pitches, as manager Bob Melvin had seen enough after his lefty walked the previous hitter, Rua, after hitting the batter before that, Nelson Mazara.

Yes, Manaea struck out 10 of the 24 batters he faced in just 86 pitches. But he also walked a pair, hit Mazara with a pitch that glanced off his helmet, uncorked a wild pitch, and committed a throwing error, one of three the A’s committed on Sunday.

That brought rookie flamethrower Frankie Montas into the game with the bases loaded, one out, and he promptly walked Chirinos to increase the Rangers lead to 4-0.  Then with Gallo down 0-2, the big slugger delivered a two-run single, effectively ending the game with the A’s trailing by six runs in the seventh.

Again, Gallo reinvented himself on the fly at Oakland’s expense.  The base hit on an 0-2 count was a first for the third baseman. Gallo had never previously hit safely at the big league level in an 0-2 count, striking out a whopping 38 times in 42 fruitless at-bats.

As for the A’s, a trio of numbers told their story: the aforementioned three errors (first baseman Ryon Healy’s fielding gaffe allowed Rougned Odor to reach in the four-run sixth), 11 men left on base, and 1 for 10 batting with runners in scoring position.

The A’s actually outhit the Rangers, 8-7, a statistical anomaly rendered into a minor footnote.

The A’s move on to Kansas City for the Royals’ home opener on Monday afternoon.  Jharel Cotton and the Royals’ Ian Kennedy are the listed, starting pitchers with both having lost their initial starts.

Oakland A’s Sunday day off report: A’s may show what they’ve got to offer sooner rather than later this season

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Oakland Athletics’ Yonder Alonso slides to score against the San Francisco Giants in the third inning of an exhibition baseball game Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. Alonso scored on a two-run double by Athletic’s Matt Joyce. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–The A’s enter Monday’s season opener at the O.co Coliseum against the Angels with this unsettling fact in the back of their collective minds: they haven’t won a game in more than a week, losing their last six exhibition contests and 8 of 9.

Luckily, regular season momentum isn’t always built in spring training.  But for a club that lost 93 games in 2016, scored an American League worst 653 runs, and lost 47 games at home where its offense was its most tepid, a fast start would be a welcome change, and quite obviously, a good sign.

But the A’s schedule doesn’t offer many soft landing spots, especially in the first two months, so whatever the A’s have to do to win, it likely will have to start with playing well.  In the first two months, the A’s play the Angels 10 times, the Twins three times and the Marlins twice.  Other than that, Oakland will  see a steady diet of teams that consider themselves playoff contenders and threats to win the AL pennant. The Mariners, Rangers, Yankees, Indians, Royals, Astros, Tigers and Red Sox comprise 38 of the A’s first 53 games and all eight of those teams figure to be in the mix for the AL postseason.

To counter all those talented clubs, the A’s have to get the most out of their youthful, but promising pitching rotation, their experienced bullpen, and their hopefully improved lineup.  But Sonny Gray, the presumptive ace, will start the season on the disabled list, and Ryan Madson, the guy most likely to earn a closers’ role, didn’t pitch well in the spring.   The A’s starting lineup offers Jed Lowrie, Matt Joyce and Trevor Plouffe as experienced additions, but this is an offense that has to build itself up from scratch based on last year’s inability to score runs.

If the A’s do overcome all the inertia that might be pulling them downward in the AL West standings, a couple of names stand out: Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea and Stephen Vogt.

Graveman made five spring starts, allowing just 13 hits in 19 2/3 innings of work.  He stuck out 16, and issued only three walks.

Rookie Cotton cruises, A’s avoid a winless home stand in their Coliseum season finale

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cotton-cruise

By Morris Phillips

In need of some good news, the A’s got some from rookie pitcher Jharel Cotton.

Cotton allowed three hits and a run over seven innings as the A’s broke their eight-game losing streak at home with a 7-1 win over the Rangers.  The rookie pitcher acquired from the Dodgers in the Josh Reddick deal, impressed again, working quickly and efficiently with his fastball and dynamic changeup.

“He’s got a special changeup, something we had not seen,” Rangers’ manager Jeff Bannister said.  “When he’s got that working for him it does present a challenge when it’s the first time these guys have seen him.”

The A’s scored seven times in the second to help Cotton cruise.  The seven runs were one less than the team had scored during the first five games of the home stand, just more adversity for the lowest scoring American League team when playing at home.

But things looked quite different in a hurry on Sunday.   After Bruce Maxwell and Brett Eibner drove in runs, the A’s loaded the bases against Colby Lewis.  Stephen Vogt followed with a bases clearing double, followed by Ryon Healy’s two-run shot that chased Lewis.

The Texas pitcher had won in each of last four appearances at the Coliseum, and was looking to impress Bannister enough to claim a post-season starting spot behind aces Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish.  But the A’s need to erase the burden of a winless home stand, and put an end to their offensive blackout trumped anything Lewis was trying to accomplish.

Maxwell and Healy led the A’s 13-hit attack with three knocks each.  Healy’s breakout afternoon ended a 1 for 16 slide for the rookie third baseman.  Marcus Semien had a pair of hits, a nice change for him as well.  Semien came in hitting just .177 in September.

Cotton needed just 70 pitches to complete seven innings, and the humble pitcher sensed the AL West champions were more concerned about their travel itinerary than the game.

“I feel like it as a Sunday game and they wanted to get away,” Cotton said with a distinct nod to Southwest Airlines.  “I was on the mound like, ‘Thank you.  Just keep swinging.’”

Cotton’s first four big league starts have all lasted at least five innings with the right hander allowing a run or less.  That’s the first time that feat been accomplished by an A’s rookie in more than 100 years.

Adrian Beltre gave Cotton his only blemish, a seventh inning solo shot.  Beltre’s 32nd home run of the season and 445th of his career also was his 2,937 hit, moving him past Barry Bonds on the all-time hit list.

The A’s conclude their season with road games in Anaheim and Seattle.  Sean Manaea gets the start Monday against the Angels with Jered Weaver on the mound for the home team.

NOTES: Sonny Gray will come off the disabled list and start Wednesday’s game.  The A’s ace hasn’t pitched in two months due to a forearm strain.

Oakland A’s Saturday game wrap: Andrus homers twice, A’s shut out for the second straight day

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core

By Morris Phillips

AP photo: Elvis home run balls have left the building, Elvis Andrus (1) of he Texas Rangers get congratulated by teammate Ryan Rua after hitting a two run shot in the sixth inning as Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell waits for the celebration to end

OAKLAND–Elvis Andrus wasn’t in the celebrating mood on Friday night on the occasion of his Rangers wrapping up the AL West title.  While his teammates blazed a path of destruction in the clubhouse—first with ginger ale, then with champagne—Andrus refrained, hoping his restraint would help him recover from a bug that had slowed him in recent days.

He also requested that manager Jeff Bannister pencil him into the lineup on Saturday, while the other Rangers’ regulars stepped back after a night of celebration.

Not bad decisions it turns out.

Andrus homered twice—both off A’s starter Raul Alcantara—and the Rangers kept the foot on the gas, winning 5-0, shutting out the A’s for the second straight day.

So unexpected was his outburst, teammate Adrian Beltre had to remind Andrus to swing for the fences in his final at-bat as well, feeling that there would be no way the light-hitting shortstop would ever again be in the position to hit three homers in a game.

Andrus hit just six home runs coming in, and settled for two more after he flew out to right fielder Danny Valencia in the ninth.  But no mistake, that was plenty to bury the non-swinging A’s, already burdened by their offensive struggles, then lumped with a heaping scoop of Yu Darvish on Saturday.

Darvish showed his playoff readiness by pitching seven innings, allowing two hits while striking out nine, easily the best line the 30-year old has posted since undergoing Tommy John surgery 18 months ago.  Of course, this comes one start after Darvish allowed the A’s seven hits, including two homers in five innings, in Arlington, leaving that day with Oakland leading 7-0.

So does Darvish’s rebound say more about him or more about the A’s?  Any statistician—after draining the nearest, uncorked bottled of wine and banging his head with a mallet a couple of times—would frustratingly conclude a larger sample size is needed.  But the confounding A’s win this contest hands down: after scoring a whopping 65 runs in seven games on the road (6-1), the A’s have scored eight runs in five losses at home.

“We were scoring runs in bunches, we won six out of seven, had a chance to sweep seven in a row,” manager Bob Melvin said.  “We really had a good feeling coming in here, and then haven’t been able to sustain anything since we’ve been home.”

“When we have our days, when we’re clicking, you can’t get any of us out.  So it’s frustrating, but at the same time, it’s also part of the game,” catcher Bruce Maxwell said.

The A’s slump puts them a tense situation for Sunday’s season finale at home.  Losers of their last eight home games (last suffered in May 2001), and now a season-high 25 ½ games out of first place (the most they’ve trailed an AL West race since 1997), this team needs a win in the worst way.

Do the A’s want the spectre of a nine-game losing streak hanging over their heads on Opening Night 2017? From GM Billy Beane all the way down to the team’s groundskeeping crew, the answer is absolutely not.

Jharel Cotton, a rookie albeit an impressive one, will get the start for the A’s on Sunday.  He’ll face wily veteran Colby Lewis, amped up to show Bannister and the Texas brass that he deserves to make post-season starts behind the Rangers’ impressive one-two punch of Cole Hamels and Darvish.  Lewis also will have the team’s regular lineup behind him, minus Andrus, after their well-deserved day of rest.

NOTES: Alcantara enjoyed the lengthiest of his four big league starts on Saturday, finishing six innings, walking one, striking out six while allowing the two home runs to Andrus.  The Dominican pitcher with the eye-popping stint at AAA Nashville this season, remains a candidate for the A’s 2017 rotation along with Sonny Gray, Kendall Graveman, Jesse Hahn, Cotton and others.  Ryon Healy has followed his 10-game hit streak with a 1 for 16 slide, including 0 for 4 on Saturday.  The rookie had eight extra-base hits and 10 RBI during his streak.

 

 

 

 

 

A’s lose 2-1 in 10 innings, fail to back Manaea’s strong start

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manaea-in-a-groove

By Morris Phillips

The A’s offered a few things on Tuesday night—the final home start for a promising rookie starting pitcher, a kooky play and the resulting controversy, an ejection rooted in passion, competitive play and free parking—but offense was not one of them.

Three hours of baseball, 10 innings, three base hits.  Those three singles allowed the A’s to hang around, but the Astros prevailed, winning 2-1 in extra innings.

Sean Manaea made his second start following a stint on the disabled list, and the rookie was as good as he’s been all season, locating his fastball, finishing hitters with a nasty cutter and a changeup, and showing—once again—that he’s a big piece of the team’s future.

Manaea went six innings, allowing three hits while striking out seven.  He worked briskly, offering first pitch strikes to 12 of the 22 batters he faced.

But the offense wasn’t present to support Manaea.  Coming off their best road trip in more than two years, filled with offense, the A’s have laid eggs in their return to the Coliseum, going the final six innings scoreless on Monday, and the final four empty on Tuesday.  In all, the A’s have dropped five in a row at home.

“Unfortunately, that’s just part of the game, the ebbs and flows that come with it,” Ryon Healy admitted.  “We go on a road trip and we score endless amounts of runs and the offense is always there and you come home, and we scored three runs in the last two nights.  So definitely tough, but something we have to bounce back from and keep pushing forward.”

The Astros kept their faint post-season hopes alive with the win, and long reliever Chris Devenski was a big part of that.  In relief of starter Joe Musgrove, Devenski pitched 3 2/3 innings without allowing a hit, a period in which the Astros pushed across the tying run.  After Devenski denied the A’s in the ninth, the Astros won it when George Springer singled, chasing home teammate Tony Kemp.

In the third inning, players, coaches and umpires were scratching their collective heads, when Jake Marisnick appeared to beat out a bunt, a play intended to move up Teoscar Hernandez, who led off the inning with a base hit.  Marisnick, upon a review that was blessed with a couple of excellent replay angles, was called out on Yonder Alonso’s ever-so-slight swipe tag.

But during the play, Hernandez inexplicably stepped off first base and was also tagged out by Alonso—after Marisnick was declared safe—an act that the umpire’s interpreted to be forgivable in that Hernandez was reacting to the initial, overturned call.  When the umpires conferenced and allowed Hernandez to remain at first base, A’s manager Bob Melvin issued a formal protest.

“I’m just trying to cover my bases, once we got out of the inning, I rescinded it,” Melvin said.  “I don’t know how you can get in the head of a runner and say what he was thinking on that play.”

Jose Altuve, the clear, front runner for AL MVP honors, picked up his 200th hit of the season in the eighth inning.  Altuve became the first player to accumulate 200 hits in three consecutive seasons since Ichiro Suzuki finished 10 consecutive seasons of 200 hits in 2010.

Danny Valencia had enough of home plate umpire Marty Foster and his shifting strike zone after striking out in the ninth.  Foster ejected Valencia when he too forcefully expressed his feelings about the subject.  The A’s right fielder hitting cleanup was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

The A’s conclude their series with the Astros—they’ve now dropped seven straight to their division rivals—on Wednesday afternoon.  Rookie Daniel Mengden will face his hometown team in a matchup with Houston’s Collin McHugh.

 

 

 

A’s offense disappears, rookie Cotton denied in quiet 4-2 loss to the Astros

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high-cotton

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–Whatever got into the A’s last week on the road didn’t follow them back to Oakland.

Marwin Gonzales knocked in a pair of runs in the ninth, breaking a 2-2 tie, and the Astros went on to beat the A’s at the Coliseum, 4-2 on Monday night.  After scoring 65 runs on their just completed 6-1 road trip, the A’s metaphorically lost their luggage, offense in tow, managing just three hits in dropping their third straight at home.

The dramatic drop in offense at the Coliseum—the A’s are scoring a full run less at home than they are on the road—falls squarely in the team’s under-utilized tool box, a function of a young team trying to find their identity, optimally as closely aligned to the tenets of Moneyball as possible, but currently not aligned at all.  These young A’s don’t draw walks, don’t hit particularly well deep in counts, and they don’t excite their home crowd with the necessary offense to win games.

Nonetheless, they’re showing signs.  Rookies Ryon Healy and Bruce Maxwell both homered on Monday with Maxwell’s his first as big leaguer.  Healy’s seemingly gotten all his firsts out of the way, hitting .381 after his home run Monday, the highest batting average of any American Leaguer in the month of September to date.  Second baseman Joey Wendle hit .375 on the just completed road trip.  And Khris Davis, no true youngster at 28 and completing his third full season at the big league level, has hit 40 home runs for the first time in his career.

But Davis needs work: improved defense, and a need to figure out what those Houston scouting reports say about him.  Of his 40 homers, only one has come against the Astros, and he’s hitting just .129 against the division rival after his 0 for 4 on Monday.

On the mound, rookie Jharel Cotton provided more hope for the A’s future on Monday.  Cotton’s third big league start was much like the first two: eye-opening and impressive.  With manager Bob Melvin closely monitoring his workload, Cotton went six innings, allowing two hits and a walk.  The 24-year old acquired in the Josh Reddick trade had the Astros flailing and frustrated due to his trademark cutter and 12-6 curveball.

“He’s locating all his pitches, his changeup in any count, and his curveball was probably better today than we’ve seen it,” Melvin said.  “He pitched great.”

But Cotton wasn’t around when the game was decided, Ryan Madson was, and the reliever found out how difficult it is to navigate Houston’s two most dynamic hitters—Jose Altuve and Carlos Correia—with the game in the balance.

After tying the game in the eighth, the Astros struck again in the ninth with Altuve punching a Madson offering racing towards his hands into right field for a leadoff single.  Then Correia displayed his considerable experience hitting behind the AL’s top hitter, a guy who’s seemingly always on base, by punching a ball through an exaggerated hole created partially by Wendle breaking to second base as Altuve looked to steal.

That set up the Astros with runners on first and third, no outs.  Then Evan Gattis was walked to set up a force at home, according to Melvin, again a measure to combat Altuve and his speed.  Then Gonzales delivered the game-winner on the first pitch from Madson, which he sent straight up the middle against the A’s drawn-in infield.

Former Athletic Luke Gregerson picked up the win by working out his own jam in the eighth.  Gregerson, working deliberately as always, induced a ground ball out from Danny Valencia stranding pinch-runner Arismendy Alcantara at third.

Houston’s win kept them alive in a crowded AL Wild Card picture where they trail Baltimore and Toronto by three games, with the equally desperate Tigers and Yankees in between the Astros and one of the two spots held by the Orioles and Jays.

The A’s look to make a better statement in their final week at home of the season on Tuesday.  Sean Manaea will attempt to pick up his seventh win in a matchup with Houston’s Joe Musgrove.

 

 

A’s offense absent again as the Mariners sweep at the Coliseum

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By Morris Phillips

AP photo: The Oakland A’s pitcher Raul Alcantara put out a much better start but couldn’t get in the win column against the Seattle Mariners on Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum

OAKLAND–Raul Alcantara was all over the place in his big league debut on Labor Day.  He left a far more focused and lasting impression on Sunday, but it didn’t result in a win as the A’s were swept by the Mariners, losing 3-2.

No A’s pitcher had walked three guys and committed a balk in a game in the team’s history in Oakland.  In fact, the churning record books revealed that the embarrassing feat hadn’t been done since 1930 when Howard Ehmke had a meltdown.

Ehmke’s poor game came at the end of a 16-year big league career, and less than a year year after he started Game 1 of the World Series and struck out 13 in a complete game win, then considered a stroke of genius by manager Connie Mack to start a nearly forgotten veteran who hadn’t pitched in more than a month leading up to Game 1.

For Mack, the decision to start Ehmke was one of the biggest moves of his legendary managerial career.  For Ehmke, it was redemption for an aging pitcher that had a solid, but below-the-radar career to that point.

After winning the Series that year, the A’s brought Ehmke back for the 1930 season, but after his meltdown performance, he was released less than two months into the season.

While Ehmke’s meltdown was his swan song, the A’s maintained that Alcantara’s was beginner’s nerves for an emerging pitcher that had figured it out at the minor league level after a brief, but eye-popping stint at AAA Nashville.  On Sunday, the organization’s instincts proved correct in Alcantara’s six plus innings of work in which he allowed seven hits and was hurt only by Mike Zunino’s two-run homer in the second inning.

“I think his stuff his really, really good, it’s definitely an indication of what we thought and what I thought coming into this week it would be,” catcher Stephen Vogt said.

It may have been Vogt’s decision to throw Zunino a second slider in the at-bat that may have been a bigger mistake than Alcantara’s in throwing the pitch.  Even to that point, the Dominican pitcher had shown his fastball-change combo was electric, according to Vogt.  Afterwards, Zunino said seeing the slider a first time allowed him to react quicker to it the second time.

The hanging slider was crushed, ending up in the left field seats, more than 400 feet from the plate.

But the rest of the afternoon would be partially frustrating for Mariners’ hitters who compiled 12 hits, but couldn’t come up with the big one in a game that remained tied 2-2 from the second inning to the ninth.

In the ninth, Zunino struck again with a leadoff double, and Ketel Marte delivered the winning run with a single off Ryan Madson scoring pinch-runner Ben Gamel.

Offensively, the A’s had another frustrating afternoon, compiling six singles and Brett Eibner’s RBI triple in the second inning.  The A’s as a team have the second lowest batting average in the American League, and had scored just 39 runs in their previous 14 games before Sunday.

The Mariners have won five straight, while the A’s fell to a season-worst 22 games below .500.

On Monday, the A’s travel to Kansas City with Ross Detwiler facing the Royals’ Dillon Gee.

BUTLER RELEASED: The A’s parted ways with designated hitter Billy Butler before Sunday’s game, a surprising move given that he had nearly $10 million remaining on his contract for the remainder of this year, and next.  But Butler continued his regression at the plate that surfaced at the conclusion of his lengthy career in Kansas City, hitting .258 with 19 home runs in 236 games in Oakland.

Did Butler’s physical confrontation with teammate Danny Valencia in the team’s clubhouse last month factor into the decision?  The A’s say no, but it’s hard to believe that given the team’s emphasis on chemistry after last year’s team was considered less than cohesive.

 

 

 

 

A’s find there’s no mercy rule down two touchdowns, lose 14-3 to the Mariners

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By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–This was a good week for the Oakland A’s—radio personality Mychael Urban made that declaration on his “Inside the Bigs” show Saturday morning—it just didn’t end good.

The A’s saw improving Kendall Graveman toss a clunker, allowing a career-worst 12 hits in a 14-3 blowout, that saw the A’s trailing 14-0 before a late field goal lent a measure of respectability.  Graveman came in with just as many wins (10) as his pitching opponent, Felix Hernandez, but he left needing to go back to the drawing board.

“I just didn’t overall locate the ball as well as I have in the past,” Graveman said.  “Just get back to it and continue to work and finish out the last couple strong and wash this one away.”

“It was just one of those games where he was a little bit off and didn’t have command of his fastball like he normally does,” manager Bob Melvin said of his pitcher.

While Graveman struggled, Hernandez cruised, winning for a 14th time in Oakland, tying Tommy John for the most wins by an opposing pitcher at the Coliseum.  King Felix allowed six hits and a walk in six innings of work, but no runs.  Four of the six hits he allowed came in the first two innings, when the A’s threatened but couldn’t break through.

Hernandez kept the A’s off balance with his assortment of breaking pitches in full effect.  It hasn’t been the perennial Cy Young candidate’s best season, but when he’s on, he’s lethal.  Against the A’s inexperienced lineup, and given the club’s offensive struggles at home, this one in the books early.

“When you give him a lead—I think it was up to six runs—he’s not going to let those slip away,” Mariners’ manager Scott Servais said.  “He knows how to get deep into games.  That’s why he’s Felix.”

Seven Mariners had at least two hits in the team’s 17-hit attack.  Nelson Cruz had three hits and scored twice, Kyle Seager had a pair of hits including a solo shot in the seventh that Dennis Eckersley—the big head, run around the warning track version—had a bird’s eye view of in the seats in the right field corner.  Seager’s shot made it 9-0 and the normally wide-eyed Eck appeared downcast as well watching the slugger’s ball careen around the field level staircase to his left.

The Mariners got two in the first inning, four in the third, two in the sixth, and six runs in the seventh to build their 14-0 lead.  A’s reliever J.B. Wendleken got beat up pretty good in the seventh, allowing four hits and five earned runs.  Wendleken’s ERA sits at 10.80 after seven forgettable appearances—all in A’s losses—where he’s allowed 17 hits in 11 plus innings of work.

The A’s got a little back late, but they needed a fielding error from Seager to push across the first run in the seventh.  In the eighth, Ryon Healy connected, his two-run blast was his eighth of his abbreviated big league season.

The Mariners have won three straight to get within three games of the second wild card spot, but that just leaves them on the fringes of that race with the red-hot Yankees, Tigers and Astros among the five teams on the list above them.  The A’s finished their “good” week at 3-3, with good encompassing several eye-popping performances from their youngsters.  The A’s registered a pair of nice late-inning victories on Sunday and Tuesday, and saw Jharel Cotton make an impressive big league debut on Wednesday, while drawing comparisons to Pedro Martinez.

Still the A’s sit 60-81, and with their 41st loss at home will register consecutive losing seasons at the Coliseum for the first time in the 21st century.

On Sunday, Raul Alcantara gets his second shot at respectability, looking for a major upgrade on his first big league appearance in which he couldn’t finish three innings.  James Paxton will go for the Mariners, he’s won both of his previous starts against the A’s.