Tag: A’s

By Morris Phillips

Is it the worst way to lose a ballgame? For the A’s maybe not the worst way, but close.

But the best way to win a game?  For Orioles, you would have to say yes.

The Orioles trailed 3-1  in the sixth inning, rallied to tie, then won in the tenth on a dramatic, grand slam home run from Chris Davis on reliever Arnold Leon’s 3-2 pitch.  Davis’ blast dropped the A’s back in the American League cellar, while it propelled the Orioles in the right direction of a crowded field of AL playoff hoepfuls.

“You try to take advantage of the situations where we have runners in scoring positions and not do too much and just get one run in,” Davis said after the O’s 9th win in their last 12 games.  “And a lot of times when you’re just trying to do a little you get rewarded with a lot”

“I was trying to go away to get a ground-ball double play, but I didn’t execute very well the way I wanted to,” Leon said.

Leon allowed the first, two Orioles’ hitters to reach in the tenth, with tall, rangy Manny Machado just 90 feet away at third representing the go-ahead run.  So manager Bob Melvin elected to walk the bases loaded and have Leon face Adam Jones and Davis back-to-back in search of an out, then an inning-saving double play.

For Leon, the first part came easy.  Jones popped out to second base on the reliever’s second pitch.  The second part?  Leon’s still looking for that, as Davis went down and golfed a fastball at the knees over the 388 sign in left center.

It was Davis’ sixth career grand slam, and his third homer in the last four days.  Based on the location of the pitch, it also was a case of a talented hitter who’s also red-hot taking advantage of a pitcher who backed himself into a corner.

“Once you get two strikes you try to battle,” Davis said.  “He actually made a pretty good pitch.  I just thought I waited him out.  He threw me a really good curveball earlier in the at-bat.”

Kendall Graveman started for Oakland and cruised into the sixth inning with the lead, allowing just two hits.  But in the sixth, Gerardo Parra bunted his way on, busting up the starter’s rhythm.  With two outs, the O’s rallied as Davis, Jimmy Paredes and J.J. Hardy came up with consecutive hits off the A’s starter.

That quickly the A’s lead evaporated.  And their offense had as well as the A’s would go the final six innings without additional scoring.

Wei-Yin Chen started for Baltimore and struggled, allowing four hits and four walks in just five innings.  But with a run in and the bases loaded in the third, Chen escaped further damage by striking out Danny Valencia.  The next inning, Marcus Semien came up the RBI double, and stole third.  But Billy Burns struck out, and Semien was picked off third to end the inning.

It was the third straight start Chen failed to pitch into the sixth inning.

The A’s fell in extra innings for the seventh time in 2015.  The A’s lost their first six extra-inning contests before winning four straight.  Davis’ grand slam did prevent the A’s from losing a one-run ballgame for a major-league worst and franchise-record 26^th time.

On Thursday, Aaron Brooks attempts to follow up his stellar A’s debut in a 7:05pm start against Scott Feldman and the first-place Astros.

By Morris Phillips

It never gets old.  But it never looks like a proper way to treat a hero.

But in this case, the A’s Mark Canha will take it even if the whip cream takes forever to wipe off, and the Gatorade is way, way too cold.

The A’s captured a close game late—a rare feat for Oakland in 2015 with the A’s mired in last place—as Canha delivered the game-winning double off the left field wall in the 10^th inning off Indians’ reliever Cody Allen.

With the win, the A’s gained an unlikely split in a four-game series where they went the first 18 innings with only three hits and one run. The team also picked up ace Sonny Gray, who went seven innings allowing just one run in the first inning, but left without the possibility of getting a win.

Canha had been struggling coming into his game-winning at bat, and while the whipped cream on his brow clearly labeled him the hero, Canha deflected some of the credit to Sam Fuld, who scored the winning run.

“I was just really rooting Sam on when I hit it to run as fast as he could,” Canha said.  “Sam has great speed and (Cody) Allen was paying a lot of attention to him over there, and maybe that helped me get in a good hitter’s count.”

“That’s always tough, whether it’s pinch-hitting or whether it’s coming in unexpected mid-game.  We do enough of them where guys are ready for them, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy,” manager Bob Melvin said of Canha’s impromptu dramatics.

Not one batter on either team managed to pick up more than one hit, a sure sign of pitcher’s duel and likely a lengthy game.  While the A’s were fortunate to gain a split, Cleveland manager Terry Francona expressed frustration that his team couldn’t capture three of the four games.   But when pitchers pitch like they did in this series, some frustration is par for the course.

“We have to do a better job of manufacturing runs or scoring runs,” Francona admitted.

The A’s are expected to activate Coco Crisp for Monday’s home game against Baltimore after a lengthy stint on the disabled list to deal with his nagging neck injuries.  If so, expect a changing of the guard as Billy Burns has quickly established himself as a rookie of the year candidate as well as the A’s leadoff man of the future which means Crisp will likely bat second in the order upon his return.

Jesse Chavez will get the start on Monday in a matchup with Orioles’ rookie Tyler Wilson, who is expected to be recalled for the fifth time this season as a replacement for Chris Tillman, who has an ankle injury and will be skipped in the Baltimore rotation.

NOTES: Nothing could more important for the A’s in the remaining 56 games than having one or more players establish themselves as a force on the club going forward into the 2016 season.  Reliever Fernando Abad appears to be the first guy to answer the call with his 1 1/3 of scoreless relief on Sunday, extending his streak of not allowing a run to 10 2/3 innings.  Abad struck out two batters, including Fernando Lindor with two runners on to end the eighth.

By Morris Phillips

Like a lot of Oakland A’s acquisitions, Aaron Brooks is a small name replacing a bigger name.  The key for Oakland and Brooks is that he doesn’t remain anonymous for too long.

For Brooks, the transition to prominence began last night with a dazzling debut at the O.co. Coliseum.  The 25-year old righthander acquired in the Ben Zobrist trade shut down the Indians, pitching into the eighth inning allowing a run in the A’s 5-1 win.

“What a night for him,” Stephen Vogt said.  “He took a good lineup over there and shut them down tonight.”

“That was a terrific game.  Exceeded my expectations, whatever they were for him,” manager Bob Melvin said.

The A’s remain mired in the American League cellar, 13 games below .500, but the win snapped a three-game losing streak, and the team’s offense got moving in the process.  The A’s had just two hits on Thursday, and one hit Friday in dropping the first two games of the series.  On Saturday, the A’s tallied eight hits, including Marcus Semien’s mammoth, seventh-inning home run that put the A’s up 4-1.

Brooks’ debut and the offensive breakout offered a nice counterpoint to Zobrist’s big night in Toronto in which he homered twice in the Royals’ 7-6 win.  Brooks had been stuck in an awful start to his big league career that saw his ERA balloon to 43.88 in 2014, and was 6.23 in limited action this season for Kansas City.

Brooks kept the Royals off-balance with a four-pitch repetoire including a swing-and-miss changeup, a huge improvement on his previous outings.  He struck out five, didn’t walk anyone and cruised into the eighth inning on an efficient 94 pitches.

Melvin was quick to announce after the ballgame that Brooks had earned a spot in the team’s starting rotation going forward with the newly acquired Felix Doubront the guy who will—at least for now—be bypassed in the team’s short range plans.

“I mean, we want to take a look at our young guys, some of the guys that we traded for,” Melvin said.  “We wanted to see how he reacted to pitching at the big league level.  It was his first big league win, so it would’ve been pretty tough to send him down after that.”

Cleveland starter Cody Anderson allowed a run in the second and two in the fifth, before Semien’s homer knocked him out the game in the seventh.  After spectacular outings from Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, Anderson was just okay against Oakland on Saturday.  Despite the wins to open the series with the A’s, the Indians have dropped seven of their last 10 contests.

On Sunday, the A’s try to gain the split with Sonny Gray on the hill.  Gray was at his best in his previous outing on Tuesday in Los Angeles where he shut down the Dodgers on three hits.  Trevor Bauer will get the start Sunday for Cleveland.

By Morris Phillips

When you’ve lost as many agonizing one-run ballgames as the A’s, it’s likely one will look like this:

Young starter pitches his heart out—doing all he can to change the struggling ballclub’s fortunes—only to lose by the narrowest of margins in a most unlikely fashion.

For the A’s and Chris Bassitt, that occasion was Saturday afternoon at sold-out AT&T Park where Bassitt allowed the game’s first run on Madison Bumgarner’s home run and his team’s offense was missing in action once again in a 2-1 loss.

The A’s have dropped two straight to the Giants, and four of five overall, and the Giants remained red-hot, winners of 10 of 11.  Lately, the trip across the Bay has cost the A’s a lot more than a hefty bridge toll, it’s been a crippler in a win-loss column as well, with San Francisco capturing 15 of the last 18 contests.

The lessons imparted to Bassitt couldn’t be relayed in any tougher fashion.  The 26-year old began  2015 with an opportunity to become a member of major-league rotation for the first time, only to be the odd-man out after spring training.  Then a pair of promotions from AAA proved that Bassitt had what it takes, first as a reliver making five appearances in which opposing batters hit just .135 and then as an emergency starter in place of the ailing Sonny Gray.  Those two starts both resulted in 2-1 losses as Bassitt allowed just three earned runs.  But after those two stints, Bassitt landed back in Nashville.

Bassitt’s third promotion—to replace Jesse Hahn, who landed on the disabled list—was July 11 in Cleveland.  That day, the A’s rallied in the eighth, after Bassitt pitched them into the seventh tied 2-2.  Again, the pitcher acquired from the White Sox in the Jeff Samardzija deal was optioned.

Two weeks later, with Scott Kazmir traded to Houston, Bassitt made the flight west again, only to run into Bumgarner in the third inning.

“It was just an awkward thing where I was like ‘don’t walk him, don’t walk him, don’t walk him’ and I grooved a fastball right down the middle and obviously he can hit a little bit.”

“I’m just trying to hit the ball hard and contribute in anyway we can up there,” Bumgarner said.  “It’s been going pretty good of late, but I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

Bumgarner’s home run came on a 3-2 pitch, one pitch after home plate umpire Joe West failed to ring up the World Series MVP on an offering straddling the strike zone.  It was the ninth home run of Bum’s career and his third this season.  While A’s pitchers have collectively been the worst hitting group since interleague play began in 1997, the Giants offered Bumgarner, the Silver Slugger award winner for pitchers in 2014.

In interleague play, the odds dramatically favor NL teams playing in their home parks and not having to face or produce a designated hitter of their own.  With Bumgarner hitting ninth along with his staff-ace quality pitching, the Giants saw the odds swing even further in their favor on Saturday.

“It just goes to show you how a pitcher can help themselves besides just throwing the ball whether it’s get a bunt down or swinging the bat,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy opined.

If you throw in the Giants’ brillance in close, situational-laden ballgames, a major factor in each of their three World titles, and the fact that the A’s are well on their way to having the worst record in one-run ballgames in the franchise’s Oakland history, this becomes as big a mismatch as anyone could imagine in such a close game.

Minus their All-Star closer Sean Doolittle, and with a league-worst 86 errors, the A’s have dropped 23 of 33 games this season decided by just one run.  As already chronicled early in this story, all three of Bassitt’s losses have been by a 2-1 score.  On Saturday, it wasn’t the pitching or the defense, just Oakland’s inability to dent Bumgarner, set-up man Sergio Romo or closer Santiago Casilla.

“You work him out of the game earlier or hopefully score some runs off of him.” A’s manager Bob Melvin said as an insight to the team’s strategy against Bumgarner.  “We just couldn’t do it early enough or get a big hit off him when we really need to.”

In the ninth, the A’s put themselves in position to tie the game when pinch-hitter Ike Davis drew a two-out walk, and Billy Burns followed with a base hit.  But Casilla struck out the next batter, Marcus Semien on a 3-2 pitch to end the ballgame.

On Sunday, the A’s attempt to avoid the sweep with Kendall Graveman facing former Athletic, Tim Hudson at 1:05pm.  The 40-year old Hudson has wins against every major league team with the exception of his former team.  Huddy has only faced the A’s twice in his 18-year big league career.

By Morris Phillips

It was get what you pay for night at the O.co Coliseum.

The Blue Jays strutted out with their suped-up, vanity-level starting pitcher, 36-year old Mark Buehrle, on nights like this, a guy who’s won 210 major league games and looks like he could win 210 more.

Cost: $20,000,000 in 2015 baseball megabucks.

Meanwhile, the A’s countered with Kendall Graveman, a 24-year old project moving at high speed to major league competentcy thanks to the shrewd-dealings of Billy Beane and the careful crafting of pitching coach Curt Young.  Definitely a guy to watch for in the near future, but in 2015, still a project.

Cost: $507,000 on Overstock.com with free shipping for bigger items.

Not surprisingly, Buehrle settled in as if he magically appeared on the Coliseum mound courtesy of a Justin Timberlake-like hydraulic platform stage shrouded in dry-ice fog.  The veteran–no doubt well-aware of the A’s struggles against lefty starters—cruised through seven innings of work, barely noticing the eight Oakland hits when juxtaposed against his one run and no walks allowed in the Jays 7-1 victory.

In the other corner, Graveman looked itchy and irritated, allowing three home runs in a start for the first time.  Whether it was the All-Star break-laced, 10 days in between starts or a rough fifth inning in which he threw 26 pitches but escaped harm, the A’s rookie couldn’t get comfortable.  In the sixth, Graveman got taken deep by Jose Bautista, walked Edwin Encarnacion and Justin Smoak, then allowed Russell Martin’s three-run shot hit in nearly the same spot as Bautista’s.

“Early on he had a lot of good movement, keeping the ball on the ground like he does.  Obviously he gave up some home runs, but it didn’t really look like they were balls up in the zone.   Look like they went down a got at least a couple of them.  Just not one of his better nights,” manager Bob Melvin said.

It probably didn’t help that everyone in the Toronto organization knows precisely what Graveman’s strengths and weaknesses are.  The Alabama-raised, Mississippi State product pitched in relief for the Jays last September before he was included in the Josh Donaldson trade this off-season.  Also, Graveman’s currently down in an up-and-down campaign that’s seen him win three, lose three, win three and now, lose two.

Also, the Toronto trio that took Graveman deep are paid handsomely to hit home runs, especially Bautista and Encarnacion.  The great home run hitters instinctively sense disjointed pitch sequences and embrace rhythm, no doubt the story of Graveman’s sixth inning meltdown.  Facing experienced hitters the third time is often a danger zone for starters, it’s a pitching skill that requires a great deal of guile, and Graveman has advanced that far yet.

“When I made mistakes, they hit it,” Graveman said.  “I have to be better with my location.”

Donaldson drew applause in his first game back in Oakland, politely acknowledging the reception with a tap of his helmet during his first at-bat.  The third baseman’s done pretty much what he did in his final season in Oakland: post big numbers on his way to a second-straight All-Star appearance.  But he didn’t need to lead the charge Tuesday. Donaldson admitted some nerves, but they must have subsided.  He doubled in each of his last two at-bats after an 0 for 3 start.

“I’ve really never been put in that position before, so it was kind of a new experience,” Donaldson said.

The A’s look to bounce back on Wednesday at 7:05pm with Sonny Gray on the mound.  The Blue Jays will counter with Felix Doubront.