Tag: A’s

The A’s meet the Cincinnati Reds as Inter-League play continues

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s will meet the Cincinnati Reds in a three-game series starting Friday night in Cincinnati. This will be the final stop on an eight-game, ten-day road trip that saw the A’s lose three in Houston and two more in Milwaukee. The A’s hope to get back on the winning track and they will send Sonny Gray to the mound. Gray’s season has not been going well for him as he did not pitch well. Gray went on the DL when the medical staff discovered that he was suffering from a strained right trapezius muscle. Gray returned to action last weekend in Houston and pitched very well. Gray went five innings and allowed just one run and five hits.

The Cincinnati Reds are another team that is trying to rebuild. The Reds own a record of 22-37 and are in last place in the NL Central trailing the division-leading Chicago Cubs by 19 1/2 games. The Reds are managed by Bryan Price. Price is a Bay Area product. He graduated from Tamalpais High School and went to UC Berkeley. Price was the pitching coach for the Reds when they were managed by Dusty Baker. The Reds, like the A’s, seem to be either very good or very bad. The Reds, in their long history, have won nine NL Pennants and five World Series. The last time the Reds were in the World Series was 1990 and they swept the favored Oakland Athletics four games to none. Since 199o, the Reds have made the playoffs four times, and three of those were under the tutelage of the aforementioned Dusty Baker. The A’s, on the other hand, have also not been to the World Series since 1990. They made the playoffs nine times, the last being the Wild Card game against the Royals in 2014.

The A’s best starter this year, Rich Hill, has been placed on the Disabled List due to a groin strain. Hill seemed to be making progress, but he aggravated the injury during a bullpen session. Third baseman Danny Valencia missed the Milwaukee series due to illness and hopes to play Friday night. Leftfielder Khris Davis has numbness in a finger due to an elbow injury.Davis did not play in Milwaukee either but did pinch-hit in one of the games. The A’s need both those players in the lineup.

The Reds infield shapes up this way. Former NL MVP, Joey Votto will be at first. Votto is hitting just .230 but has eleven homers and 39 RBIs to his credit. The veteran, Brandon Phillips will be at second, and Zach Cozart will be at short. Cozart is having a terrific season so far. He is hitting .303 with nine dingers and twenty-five RBIs. Rounding out the infield is Eugenio Suarez. Suarez, while not hitting for average (.234) has a lot of power. He has hit thirteen home runs and driven in thirty-nine.

Adam Duvall, the former San Francisco Giant, patrols left field for the Reds. Duvall was sent to Cincinnati last year when the Giants acquired Mike Leake. Duvall is having a big year for the Reds. He is hitting .268 and has hit seventeen home runs and knocked in thirty-nine. The speedy Billy Hamilton is in center. Hamilton is hitting .268 and has sixteen stolen bases. The steady Jay Bruce plays in right, and he also has put up good numbers. He owns a batting average of .284 and has put thirteen balls out of the park. Bruce has driven in forty-one so far.

The Reds starting rotation, as the A’s, leaves a lot to be desired. The pitchers are Anthony De Sclafani, Dan Straily, Alfredo Simon, lefty John Lamb and another lefty Brandon Finegan. De Sclafani will pitch Friday night against Oakland and has no record this year. Dan Straily, the former Oakland Athletic, and Houston Astro gets the ball on Saturday, and John Lamb will pitch Sunday. Sonny Gray pitches Friday night for Oakland. Kendall Graveman will follow on Saturday. Graveman has a record of 2-6 and an ERA of 5.49. Graveman’s last outing against Houston was  a no-decision. He allowed five runs on seven hits in just 4.1 innings of work. Graveman has not been able to complete the sixth inning in seven of his eleven starts. Sunday will feature two left-handed pitchers. Sean Manaea (2-4,6.20ERA) has pitched better in his last two outings. He beat the Twins but took the loss in his last start against the Brewers. John Lamb(1-3, 4.74 ERA) goes for the Reds.

After the Reds series, the A’s return home to start a nine-game homestand against the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angeles and the Milwaukee Brewers.

 

Gray looks like old self in his return, but the A’s are swept in Houston

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By Morris Phillips

AP photo: Oakland A’s pitcher Marc Rzepczynski reacts after committing a fielding error on Houston Astros Colby Rasmus at Minute Field on Sunday

Sonny Gray’s performance and the circumstances surrounding his appearance may have perked up A’s fans, but the team did little else to raise spirits in a 5-2 loss to the Astros on Sunday.

Gray returned from the disabled list in far better shape than when he left, throwing 69 pitches and looking like a No. 1 starter now that he’s recovered from the strain of his right trapezius that sidelined him for 16 days. The 26-year old right hander let it rip, hitting 96 mph with his fastball and consistently throwing his heater in the mid-90’s as he pitched five innings, allowing five hits and a run.

The A’s staked Gray to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and after a Carlos Gomez solo shot in the fifth, they led 2-1 to start the sixth. But three different Oakland relievers allowed runs while the A’s offense disappeared after the first inning, allowing the Astros to complete a three-game sweep in the series.

With the loss, the A’s fell a season-worst 9 ½ games off the pace in the AL West, and they’ll need to wait at least until Tuesday in Milwaukee to get their first win on this eight-game road trip.

But at least Gray provided hope.

The A’s top starter was scheduled for a rehab start with Single A Stockton before rejoining the parent club on Friday in Cincinnati. But when Gray got wind of Rich Hill’s injured groin and the decision to shelve the veteran for at least the weekend, he called head trainer Nick Paparesta and lobbied to rejoin the club without doing the stint for Stockton. Gray then spoke to both manager Bob Melvin and pitching coach Curt Young, explaining that he was feeling good and capable of making a start.

Once everyone involved signed off, Gray jumped on a plane to Houston, arriving on Saturday. And based on the crispness and velocity on his pitches, it appears that the decision to reinstate Gray was the right one.

“Just the conviction and the freeness he was throwing with, I thought looked like him,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “He had his movement down in the zone and was getting ground balls… and swing-and-misses with his breaking balls. That’s Sonny. He looked outstanding.”

 

 

A’s get dramatic, ninth inning home run from Jed Lowrie, but fall in 12, 6-5

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By Morris Phillips

The last thing the A’s wanted was another losing streak, but there it was staring at them after more than four hours of baseball in Houston at Minute Maid Park on Saturday.

A dramatic home run with two outs in the ninth inning from Jed Lowrie got the A’s even, but Carlos Correa’s RBI single in the 12th allowed the Astros to get past the A’s 6-5. The streaky A’s have consecutive losses after winning five straight, and fell back into sole possession of last place in the AL West.

Lowrie’s game-tying home run was his first of the season and a convergence of circumstances. The A’s second baseman has now had two stints with Oakland and Houston in his career, and been a teammate of Astros’ closer Luke Gregerson—the guy he homered against on Saturday—in both places.

But until Saturday, Lowrie and Gregerson had never faced each other in a game.

Lowrie fell behind 0-1, but golfed Gregerson’s curveball two rows into the right field seats, an economical home run that traveled just 349 feet, but allowed the A’s to get even after falling behind 5-3 in the fifth. For Gregerson, Lowrie’s homer meant a second consecutive blown save. For Lowrie, it meant his career-worst 40-game streak without a round tripper was over.

But it didn’t mean the game was over.

The A’s mounted rallies in the 10th and 12th without breaking through for a tie-breaking run. In the 10th, with runners at second and third, Chris Coghlan grounded out to end the inning. In the 12th, Marcus Semien was retired to end the inning with a pair of runners aboard.

Ryan Madson came on for Oakland to pitch the bottom of the 12th, the seventh pitcher used by the A’s, and he was greeted by George Springer’s double. Jose Altuve sacrificed Springer to third, and Correa singled him home. Call it a lighting rally, Madson and the A’s were undone in just five pitches in the 12th.

The A’s have suffered a five-game losing streak, three four-game losing streaks and a pair of three-game slides. Add a trio of two-game losing streaks and all but two of the team’s losses this season are accounted for. The A’s have been streaky with wins as well with a six-game win streak in April, the five-game streak earlier this week and a four-game streak as well.

Kendall Graveman started Saturday’s game, but didn’t survive the fifth inning, allowing seven hits and five runs. Graveman’s ERA sits at 5.49 after the short outing leading to speculation that he may be dropped from the rotation once Henderson Alvarez is ready in the coming weeks.

On Sunday, Sonny Gray comes off the disabled list to start for the A’s in a matchup with Houston’s Lance McCullers at 11:10 PST.

 

A’s Hill wins again after the Tigers implode in the decisive, sixth inning

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Maybin comes up short

By Morris Phillips

So far in 2016, things have worked out for free agent-signee Rich Hill, and just the opposite for free agent-signee Mike Pelfrey. That pattern continued on Sunday as both starting pitchers crossed paths at the Coliseum in the A’s come-from-behind 4-2 win.

Staked to a 2-0 lead, and pitching as well as he had in any of his 10 previous starts for Detroit, Pelfrey saw things fall apart after he induced a double-play ground ball off the bat of Stephen Vogt, and appeared to be on his way to keeping the A’s at bay through the first six innings.

But Pelfrey gave up back-to-back singles to Danny Valencia and Khris Davis, then saw normally sure-handed Ian Kinsler boot a potential inning-ending ground ball off the bat of Yonder Alonso. That allowed Valencia to score from third, with the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Pelfrey then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing both runners to move up. Two pitches later—after issuing a walk to Marcus Semien, loading the bases—Pelfrey’s day was done.

“Pelfrey pitched well, and we were trying to him over the hump and let him pitch deep into the game,” Kinsler said of his gaffe. “To not come up with that, it hurts a little bit.”

“For some reason I’m having trouble getting through the sixth inning,” Pelfrey admitted. “That bugs me.”

Not as much as what happened next. Reliever Alex Wilson’s second pitch appeared to induce Billy Butler to deliver an inning-ending fly ball. But center fielder Cameron Maybin broke in on the ball, but saw it bound in front of his glove as he dove for the catch. That allowed two more runs to score, and suddenly the former Met and Twin was on the hook for the loss, despite not allowing an earned run.

Now 0-5, Pelfrey’s next start isn’t promised. Gifted a two-year, $16 million contract, the 6’7” right hander has failed to win any of his first 11 starts in Detroit. And he’s no Rich Hill, the A’s diamond signed to a one-year, $6 million deal that has now yielded eight wins in the same 11 starts. While Pelfrey’s trademark sinker hasn’t fooled anyone, Hill’s signature curve has shown real bite, putting him among the AL leaders in strikeouts after he fanned nine Tigers on Sunday.

And on Sunday the differences between the two were slight. While both allowed eight combined hits and walks, Hill was able to retire two more batters than Pelfrey, and was still standing when the afternoon caved in on Pelfrey and the Tigers in the sixth.

After walking the speedy Maybin to start the seventh, Hill recovered by striking out James McCann for the first out. But a balky groin that flared up earlier in the game cost Hill an opportunity to go further as a cautious Bob Melvin elected to remove his starter at that point. Reliever Ryan Dull came on to retire the two batters he faced, while also keeping Maybin rooted to first base.

Hill addressed the injury afterwards, saying he was fine, but with the A’s overpopulated as is on the disabled list, the concern persisted. Not only is Hill the A’s top performer thus far this season, he’s undoubtedly in line to make his first All-Star game appearance if continues to perform, and reaches double-digit wins prior to the break. Again, the 36-year old renaissance man insisted that he’s good going forward.

“It’s nothing significant,” Hill said. “Sleep on it, wake up, and I’ll be fine.”

The A’s captured the series with the Tigers, after dropping six of seven prior to Detroit’s arrival. The A’s are now 7 ½ games behind first place Texas in the AL West, and hoping a friendly, upcoming schedule will allow them to stay within striking distance of the Rangers and Mariners atop the division.

With all the injuries, the veteran leadership of the club—Ryan Madson, Josh Reddick and Coco Crisp—held a players-only meeting on Friday to insure the club maintains its focus through all the constant doings on the disabled list, which at one point numbered 12 players. The immediate response was good: Saturday’s offensive explosion and Sunday’s win in a closer, tense affair. Now, according to reliever Sean Doolittle, the club simply needs to back up those wins.

“With the injuries we’ve had, I think it would be somewhat foolish to start looking ahead,” Doolittle said, referring to a schedule that has the Twins, Brewers, Reds and Astros—all struggling—up next. “We need to play better at home, get more consistent.”

In Monday’s Memorial Day matinee, the A’s send Kendall Graveman to the mound, looking to end a personal, five-game losing streak. The resurgent Twins have Ervin Santana going, a pitcher who has beaten the A’s 15 times in 27 career starts.

 

A’s break out, hit three homers in 12-3 rout of the Tigers

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By Morris Phillips

In a typical big-league dugout, where guys are either locked in or tuned out, it’s hard to get anyone’s rapt attention.  But there Danny Valencia was, surrounded by Oakland teammates, recounting his swing on what became the second longest home run of his career, a 450-foot bomb that bounded off the center field hitter’s background, just below the suites level.

Valencia, facing the Tigers’ Matt Boyd, swung almost comically at ball up and outside, nowhere near the strike zone, a tomahawk with conviction that left his bat traveling 105 mph.  With Josh Phegley behind him and three other teammates in front of him, Valencia demonstrated where his hands where and how he started his swing, surprising everyone with how high his hands where.  Phegley, wide-eyed, marveled at the positioning of Valencia’s hands near his head.

Call it the beginning of a revolution, a call for unbridled aggression, or something else entirely, as Valencia’s homer gave the A’s a 2-0 lead in Saturday’s game they would go on to win 12-3 over Detroit, establishing a season high in runs scored and hits with 17.

The A’s got home runs from Valencia and Billy Butler—also a bomb—to establish a 3-1 lead.  But Victor Martinez’ two-run shot in the sixth got the Tigers even, before the A’s broke it open with five runs in their half of the sixth, and four more in the seventh.  Throughout, the warm air and the inexperience in the pitchers both teams used, inspired a hit fest, as 11 extra-base hits by both teams were sprayed over the eight plus innings of action.

“Hopefully, this is going to be a huge momentum carrier for us,” starting pitcher Jesse Hahn said.  “We’re pretty excited about it right now, and I think this is going to be the win that’s going to kind of take off our season for us.”

The A’s had been anything but an offensive, highlight factory coming in, having scored just one run in three of their seven losses in the previous eight games.  Along with the frustration in the dugout, that meant a lot of fans at the Coliseum sitting on their hands. 

Seven A’s produced multi-hit games, including Valencia and Phegley with three each.  Phegley proved his knee injury that landed him on the disabled list is thing of the past by spelling Stephen Vogt, catching the entire, lengthy game, and coming off with three knocks as well.  Billy Butler, starting at first base in a rare start, didn’t waste time.  “Country Breakfast” saw just seven pitches in three at-bats, but he homered to give the A’s a 1-0 lead in the second, and then with the game tied in the sixth, knocked in a pair of runs with a base hit. 

Khris Davis hit a three-run shot in the seventh to increase the A’s lead to 11-3.  Davis’ homer was his American League-best 11th in the month of May. 

The A’s (21-29) remain in a last place-tie with the Astros in the AL West, but Houston and Oakland wins on Saturday allowed both teams to shave their deficit behind the division-leading Mariners to eight games.

On Sunday, Rich Hill gets the call as the A’s close their three game-set with the Tigers.  Detroit’s Mike Pelfrey will make his 10th start, but is still looking for his first win.  Pelfrey is 0-4 with a 5.55 ERA and hasn’t enjoyed a quality start in any of his last seven starts.

 

 

 

Yanked around: A’s drop third straight to New York as Tanaka shines

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Tanaka late

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–New York’s Chase Headley could have been speaking for either his struggling Yankees or their opponent, the scuffling A’s, when he stated his immediate goals for his team, currently residing near the bottom of the AL East standings at this still-early juncture in an always lengthy, big-league season.

“We have our sights on .500 at the moment,” Headley said. “If we get there, keep on climbing.”

Given that, Saturday was step forward for the Yankees, and a step back for the A’s.

Masahiro Tanaka pitched seven strong innings, holding the A’s to a run on five hits, in the Yankees 5-1 win at the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. The A’s have dropped three straight to New York after winning four straight, and after sweeping the Yankees in a three-game set in New York last month.

Sean Manaea saw things disintegrate in a four-run, fourth inning, that broke up a scoreless duel to that point. Rob Refsnyder provided the big blow when he doubled home a pair of runs, one of three hits Manaea allowed in the inning. The A’s rookie starter saw his ERA balloon to 7.62 in the loss, a number which could cost him his spot in the rotation pending the promotion of Henderson Alvarez, anticipated to be recalled from Triple-A Nashville with a clean bill of health.

Manaea felt he lost focus in the decisive fourth inning, but more specifically his fastball, plenty big enough at 93-95 mph, wasn’t reliable in terms of location. Refsnyder felt he waited Manaea out, finally getting something over the plate, and the young pitcher concurred, saying he wanted to pitch inside, but missed too often.

“I wasn’t executing the plan that we talked about before,” Manaea said. “It’s something I need to get better at.”

Offensively, the A’s felt the weight of a disabled list that has ballooned to 12 injured players with Josh Reddick sidelined Thursday after breaking his thumb. Reddick, Josh Phegley, Jed Lowrie and Stephen Vogt were all absent from the A’s lineup, with Vogt the only one not on the disabled list. The A’s makeshift lineup with Danny Valencia and Khris Davis hitting 3-4 managed just five hits off Tanaka and his array of pitches.

“Every now and then he’ll rev one up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “But it’s a cutter, it’s a slider, it’s a split, it’s a curve every now and then. He keeps you off balance.”

Adding injury to injury, Davis left early with a forearm injury incurred when he attempted to throw a runner out at the plate in the fourth. Davis’ absence is particularly troubling as he’s homered four times in the last week, and ranks second in the American League with 12 home runs on the season.

The A’s fell to 19-25 with the loss, suffering their AL worst 14th loss at home. The Yankees improved to 20-22 after opening the season with 16 losses in their first 24 games. The win allowed the Yankees to escape the cellar in the AL East, but they still trail the Orioles by six games despite a season-best four game win streak.

“There’s a lot of guys here that have done this for a very long time,” Headley explained when asked if the team was concerned with their early misfortune. “They understand that these types of streaks will happen.”

The A’s look to avoid the sweep on Sunday with Jesse Hahn facing Michael Pineda in a matchup of big, right handed pitchers.

 

 

 

 

Rays’ Andriese shuts down the A’s in complete game, two-hit shutout

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Andriese showered

By Morris Phillips

Enough of I-95 South for Matt Andriese.

The Rays’ reliever/starter who has bounced between Triple-A Durham and Tampa the last two seasons, pitched a complete game shutout in a 6-0 win over the A’s Saturday night, just six days after he stymied the Angels in his 2016 big league debut.

Suddenly, but deservedly, Andriese would appear to have a spot in the Rays’ rotation as the No. 5 starter going forward. His quality pitches that stopped the A’s on just two hits clearly said as much.

“When I got called up for my last start, I told myself I want to be here for good,” Andriese said. “I’ve been taking that mentality and building off that each outing.”

Andriese threw 106 pitches, 78 for strikes, didn’t walk anybody, struck out five, allowing base hits to Matt McBride in the third, and Danny Valencia in the seventh. After Valencia’s hit, Andriese induced Stephen Vogt to hit into an inning-ending double play.

“He’s got some deception, a good curveball, a good cutter to both sides of the plate, a good changeup,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Fastball gets on you a little bit.”

The A’s fell to 2-6 on a three-city road trip that can’t end soon enough. At 15-21, the A’s are a half-game removed from last place in the AL West, a spot that they will no doubt be motivated to avoid in the final game of the trip Sunday morning.

Brandon Guyer’s single preceded Brad Miller’s two-run homer off A’s starter Kendall Graveman in the third giving the Rays all the offense they would need. Graveman lost his fourth consecutive start, allowing six hits and four runs before Melvin lifted him in the sixth. At 1-5, Graveman’s up-and-down, brief history as a starter in Oakland, has been mostly down in 2016.

For Graveman, however, there was a silver lining.

“I wanted to get the shape of my pitches back,” the pitcher said. “We worked really hard this week to really get back on top of the baseball and get that sink, and it showed up.”

Graveman utlitized his sinker to induce groundballs on roughly half of the 17 outs he recorded. But he walked three, and only struck out one, while four of the six hits he allowed went for extra bases.

The A’s close the trip with Sonny Gray on the mound in a matchup with Tampa’s Matt Moore. Gray’s due for a bounce back, he’s seen his ERA soar in losing each of his three previous starts.

Pitching, pitching: Hill and Jimenez prove baffling in A’s, Orioles doubleheader split

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Schoop-ed

By Morris Phillips

Ubaldo Jimenez was as good in the nightcap, as Rich Hill was terrific in the opener of a doubleheader in Baltimore on Saturday.

For the A’s that meant a full day at the ballpark, and half the desired result, with their 8-1 win in the opener behind Hill, and a 5-2 loss in the nightcap in which Jimenez pitched a season-best eight innings, allowing just one walk.

In the Orioles’ win, Jimenez frustrated the A’s by spreading the eight singles and one double he allowed across the full breadth of his eight innings of work. Half of those singles came off the bat of Josh Reddick, who had seven hits in the doubleheader and saw his batting average leap from .260 to .301.

But with Reddick aboard each time, Jimenez stopped Oakland’s 4-5-6 hitters–Khris Davis, Chris Coghlan and Billy Butler–with all three going 0 for 4 for the afternoon. Manager Bob Melvin inserted Coghlan and Butler into his lineup for the second game to rest Stephen Vogt and Danny Valencia, but saw his decision to bat the pair in the middle of his lineup backfire with Jimenez methodically playing damage control.

While Coghlan (.148) and Butler (.195) saw their averages dip below .200, Khris Davis had an even more frustrating day at the park, going 0 for 9 while hitting fourth in both games, right behind the red hot Reddick.

The Orioles already led 5-0 when Jimenez allowed a leadoff double to Yonder Alonso in the fifth. Josh Phegley knocked in Alonso, and later scored from third on Reddick’s infield hit. But those would be the only two runs the A’s would manage as Jimenez put up three more zeros, before giving way to closer Zach Britton in the ninth, who earned his seventh save.

“He was solid, obviously,” manager Buck Showalter said of Jimenez. “How many walks did he have, one?  He dialed up something we needed.”

The 32-year old veteran hadn’t been nearly as effective in his four previous starts as he was against the A’s. Jimenez allowed 15 earned runs, while issuing 15 walks in his previous four starts, losing three. But on Saturday night, he worked smart, starting 23 of 32 batters with a strike and needing just 104 pitches to get through eight.

“The walks hurt,” Jimenez said. “Every time I walk a guy, it seems like they find a way to score.”

A’s leadoff batter Billy Burns had a rough go in the nightcap as well, getting caught stealing in the third, and grounding into an inning-ending double play in the seventh.

In the makeup of Friday’s rainout, played in front of a sparse crowd of fewer than 15,000, Rich Hill continued his renaissance, holding the Orioles to one hit over the first five innings to earn the win. Hill ran into trouble in the sixth, but Baltimore managed just one run on the journeyman pitcher, and reliever Ryan Dull.

Dull relieved Hill with a run in and pair of runners aboard, and dangerously walked Nolan Reimold to load the bases.  But Dull recovered by striking out Jonathan Schoop to end the inning.

Hill confounded his former team with his signature curve, surviving three walks and a hit batter, by striking out five, and allowing just two hits. The 36-year old Hill found himself in familiar surroundings, having pitched for Baltimore in 2009, and having shut out the Orioles in September, his revelatory month for the Red Sox that earned him a two-year deal with the A’s.

After the game, Showalter offered a detailed description of Hill’s 12-6 curve that robbed the Orioles’ hitters of their aggressiveness despite knowing exactly what to expect from the big right hander.

“It’s one of those that comes out the hand… I don’t want to say loopy, but he’s got real late finish,” the manager said. “We knew what he was going to do. I think he was fourth or fifth in baseball in strikeouts per nine innings, which is hard to do in the American League.”

The A’s backed Hill with a dink and dunk attack that produced 15 hits, including nine singles against a frustrated Mike Wright, who took the loss. Oakland tallied single runs in the second, third and fifth, before putting up three in the sixth.

In that frame, Dylan Bundy relieved Wright, and he and catcher Matt Wieters got crossed up on a passed ball that allowed Coco Crisp to score from third, while two other Oakland baserunners advanced. After Bundy retired Burns, Jed Lowrie’s single plated Alonso and Marcus Semien.

Semien capped the A’s scoring in the eighth with a two-run homer, his eighth.

The A’s conclude their series in Baltimore on Sunday with Kendall Graveman facing Baltimore’s Chris Tillman at 10:35am PST.

Injury replacement Hahn and two relievers lead the A’s to a shutout of the Astros

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Hahn hot

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–Jesse Hahn, step right up. There’s no line, and no reason to wait.

Closing a rocky stretch in which seven different pitchers started the last seven games, Jesse Hahn came out of nowhere to register the most impressive turn, shutting out the Astros on Saturday along with two relievers in the A’s 2-0 win at the Coliseum.

While Hahn figuratively came out of nowhere, literally he’s a replacement for injured starters Felix Doubront and Chris Bassitt, and was the odd man out in spring training, a guy who made 16 starts for Oakland in 2015, and was as up and down as an elevator in a high rise building.

After posting a 6-6 record with a 3.35 ERA, forearm issues struck in July, sidelining Hahn for the remainder of the season, then after some disappointing outings this spring, he wasn’t seen or heard of in these part until Saturday.

With a fastball registering as swift as 97 mph, and plenty of bite on his breaking pitches, Hahn was simply a revelation on Saturday. The powerful right hander pitched into the seventh inning, allowing three hits and two walks, while striking out four. Bob Melvin, a most interested observer given the unsettled nature of his rotation, said as much in his comments following the game.

“Velocity, movement, mixed his pitches, throwing his curveball for a strike, mixing in a changeup, and you’re throwing 96, 97 mph and throwing strikes,” Melvin recounted. “About as good as we’ve seen him.”

Hahn worked fast, a huge advantage for the A’s error-prone defenders, starting 18 of 23 batters with a strike. His ball-strike ratio wasn’t great, so he did fall into some deep counts, but needed just 81 pitches to get the A’s into the seventh inning. By any measure this was the best outing an A’s starter has posted in 2016.

“I was throwing strikes,” Hahn said. “That was the most important thing: strike one and being able to put hitters away.”

One major qualifier in Hahn’s seamless appearance is the current state of the Astros, now tied for the worst record in the American League after winning just seven of 24 in April, and failing to win consecutive games even once. Last April, the Astros shot out of the gate at 15-7 and went from there to a first playoff appearance in 10 seasons.

“We all know we’re capable of playing a lot better,” Houston’s Scott Feldman said. “With May, hopefully something magical happens. We’ll get this thing turned around and start playing to our capabilities.

Feldman threw three innings of scoreless relief, after Chris Devenski went five innings, allowed both Oakland runs and took the loss. It was an exchange of roles as Devenski, a reliever, replaced the struggling Feldman in Houston’s rotation. Devenski pitched well, but pitched tentatively in the second, according to manager A.J. Hinch, when he allowed Billy Burns’ two-run single scoring Yonder Alonso and Josh Phegley.

Against Hahn, Carlos Correia’s one-out, double in the seventh qualified as Houston’s biggest—and only—blow. After Hahn departed, John Axford and Ryan Madson finished the job. Madson walked a couple of batters, giving Houston a sliver of light, but cleanup hitter Evan Gattis grounded into a game-ending double play with two baserunners aboard.

The A’s finished 13-12 in April, the third time in four years, excluding last April, that the A’s have posted a winning record in the opening month. Texas defeated the Angels Saturday night, 7-2, to maintain their 1 ½ game lead over Oakland in the AL West with Seattle in second, a game ahead of the A’s.

On Sunday, Rich Hill starts for Oakland, and Doug Fister gets the ball for Houston, with the Astros looking to avoid a three-game sweep. The 32-year old Fister has lost three consecutive starts, and his 5.56 ERA is more than two runs higher than his career mark.

A’s Bassitt runs into red-hot Josh Donaldson with predictable results

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By Morris Phillips

Chris Bassitt wasn’t himself on Saturday, and it was apparent from the start.

Absent the normal velocity on his fastball, and struggling with location, Bassitt needed more than 30 pitches to finish the first inning. By the end of the second inning, and after Josh Donaldson’s majestic drive landed behind the center field wall, Bassitt was effectively done, trailing 5-1 in a game the A’s would go on to lose to the Blue Jays, 9-3.

“It’s a starter’s job to make them feel uncomfortable, and that was the very last thing I was doing,” Bassitt said.

The loss ended what the team hopes is a defining run, a six-game win streak, and a seven-game road winning streak that made the A’s the last big-league club to lose away from home in 2016. With the rest of the AL West experiencing early-season struggles, Oakland was able to maintain its perch atop the division—tied with Texas with a 10-8 record.

Bassitt had pitched effectively in each of his three previous April starts, but after the game he complained of arm fatigue. His fastball, normally 95-96mph, topped out at 94mph on Saturday, and that along with his body language and his poor track record in the first inning, had the Toronto lineup salivating.

The first two Blue Jays reached, but Bassitt had a chance to put the dangerous Jose Bautista away after starting him 0-2. But the right hander missed with his next three pitches, the last of which ended up at the backstop for a wild pitch, allowing the two baserunners to advance. When Bautista then grounded out, it was an RBI sacrifice tying the game 1-1, instead of an inning-changing double play.

Three batters later, the A’s fell behind when third baseman Chris Coghlan couldn’t cleanly field Russell Martin’s grounder, allowing Josh Donaldson to score. Curiously, the official scorer ruled Martin’s grounder an infield hit, but in the real world, it was an instance of the Oakland defense letting its pitcher down at a critical juncture.

In the second, Bassitt again let the first two hitters reach. Then on a 2-0 pitch to the reigning AL MVP, the ball grabbed too much the strike zone and Donaldson, true to form, sent it soaring. After hitting a career-best 84 extra-base hits in 2015, the former Athletic is at again this season, with 13 extra-base hits and a major-league best seven homers already.

Toronto snapped a three-game losing streak, and did what they could to change the tenor of the conversation away from the 80-game suspension for PED use handed down to their first baseman, Chris Colabello. Justin Smoak, an experienced veteran replaced Colabello, but the Blue Jays murderer’s row of Donaldson, Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki remains intact.

Tulowitzki missed Friday’s game against the A’s, but returned in force with a pair of solo shots, the first of which came off Bassitt in the fifth.

Mark Canha got the A’s off to a fast start with a home run in the first. And Coco Crisp and Josh Phegley came up with timely, two-out RBI singles later in the game. But the A’s lineup was largely ineffective, drawing just one walk, and grounding into three double plays.

J.A. Happ pitched seven innings and picked up the win. The veteran was plenty familiar to the A’s, but they couldn’t damage him, outside of Canha’s blast. Happ’s doing something right; he placed himself on a very short list of Toronto starters to begin a season with four consecutive quality starts in the last 20 years.

The A’s turn to Eric Surkamp in Sunday’s series finale. Surkamp will be opposed by Drew Hutchinson, who was recalled from the minors for the assignment, a move, according to manager John Gibbons, made to give his entire rotation an extra day of rest.