Tag: Oakland A’s

A’s shut down by the Angels for the second straight day in a 4-2 loss

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By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND– Well, the A’s could use a couple of improvements.

Replace a broken glass panel on the club level. Get a few more less socially-distanced bodies in the stands. And maybe an extra productive bat or two for the struggling lineup.

Yeah, an extra bat or two.

One day after being shut out by the Angels, the A’s were stymied again unable to bust up a two-run deficit in any of the final six innings of a frustrating 4-2 loss in Sunday’s series finale.

Possibly the low point stretching across all nine frames: the A’s failed to register a knockout blow on Jose Quintana, the Angels starter who entered with no wins and a bloated ERA, but escaped a 37-pitch, third inning and two bases-loaded situations without allowing a hit. Unbeknownst to the A’s, Quintana pitched the inning with a shoulder injury that would force him to depart early.

“Going into the eighth we only had two hits,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Offensively, it’s not enough. The last couple of games we had some opportunities. Just didn’t come through as much as we’d like to.”

The A’s tallied three hits Saturday and four on Sunday. A pair of doubles prevented the club from suffering the rarity of three, consecutive games without an extra-base hit, last done in 1980. For a club that has 70 home runs in 55 games, and regularly comes up with the big hit, the last two games veered too far from the game plan.

Since their captivating 13-game win streak, the A’s are a middling 15-15. If not for the tepid pace of the AL West race thus far, they’d be looking up at the competition. Instead, a 31-24 record still has them in first place, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Astros. A road trip to Seattle and Denver to see the NL Rockies doesn’t seem like a bad idea right now. The A’s home-heavy schedule thus far hasn’t paid dividends; they’re 17-17 at home.

“We feel like we have a couple more wins maybe that we should have at this point,” Melvin said. “It seems like we get to right at a chance to go 10 games over .500, and we’ve been up against that a couple of times and lost.”

Of course, one team’s rough afternoon can be another team’s gem. For the Angels, desperate to survive Mike Trout’s absence, seeing the best of Quintana’s nine starts as an Angel was part of their good news. His injury situation is a concern, but reliever Jose Suarez picked Quintana up with three, flawless innings of relief to secure the win. That gave the Angels a split of the four-game set, critical for a club that has recently underperformed in relation to their lesser paid rivals in the Bay.

“Kind of a nicely intense game, intense series. I loved it,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “We have to know we can win here.”

Three relievers followed Suarez, and they also were effective, combining to strike out four, issue no walks, and scatter–if you will–a pair of hits. The A’s fans–over 10,000 in number for the first time in 2021–fidgeted in the absence of excitement. That, and flinched when Juan Legares’ foul ball took out a chunk of a window panel on the second level restaurant area.

Workers were forced to quickly knock out all the remaining glass when it continued to fall and cause a hazard. Another fable for the encyclopedia of the Coliseum, now 47 seasons and counting, and a bargaining chip for the club, still publicly seeking a new home in Oakland or elsewhere.

Cole Irvin went six innings as the starter for the A’s. Most of that was damage control, and he was effective in that role, departing with the A’s still in reach, down two runs. But the second inning was his downfall, as the Angels took what he offered, a couple of off-speed pitches were hit pretty good, starting with his 74 mph curveball that Jared Walsh deposited over the right field wall, and his 77 mph curve that Phil Gosselin got a hold of for a RBI single.

In between those two, David Fletcher doubled home a pair of runs on a 82 mph slider. Not surprisingly, those three pitches were among the four slowest Irvin threw in the inning.

“I just need to get on my fastball a little bit sooner,” Irvin said. “Sean (Murphy) and I talked in between innings and we got back on the fastball. It’s just stuff that is maybe a learning experience.”

The A’s start a three-game series in Seattle on Memorial Day with James Kaprelian trying to make it three straight in a matchup with Logan Gilbert at 1:10pm.

Halos Cobb does the job shuts out A’s 4-0 at Coliseum

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Los Angeles Angels starter Alex Cobbs delivers a pitch against the Oakland A’s in the first inning at the Oakland Coliseum Sat May 29, 2021 in game three of the four game series (AP News photo)

Los Angeles (AL) 4- 9 – 0

Oakland 0 – 3 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Sat May 29, 2021

OAKLAND– Two of the question marks about the A’s had about their rotation when they returned home from Anaheim on the 27th have been changed to exclamation points after Wednesday night’s masterly complete game shut out of the Angels by Chris Bassett and last night’s stellar 6-2/3 inning gutsy showing against them by Sean Manea. This afternoon we had a chance to see if Frankie Montás would continue this trend of improvement. He almost did.

The bullpen, however, remains unsettled. Perhaps because of the extra day´s rest Bassett´s route going performance gave them, the A’s relievers (at least the two of them who saw action last night) were sharp and effective over 2-1/3 innings.

Nonetheless, it’s a matter of concen that, while the Athletics’s relief corps converted 12 saves out of 13 opportunities and compiled an ERA of 2.32 in the team’s first 29 games in spite of the season opening six game losing streak, in the pen’s last 13 games, it has earned only two saves while blowing four.

During that time, its ERA has been a whopping 6.56 and opposing teams have ganged up on it for a BA of .285. This afternoon, the pen’s performance was excellent.

Oakland intends to activate Jesús Luzardo tomorrow. So, there does seem to be hope in the pitching department.

Ramón Laureano was missing from the starting line up for the second straight game, due to a pulled groin that has him day to day.

Although the Angel’s starter, Alex Cobb is new to the Halos this year, he has nine years of big league experience with Tampa Bay and Baltimore. The basic numbers for this season that he brought to the mound this afternoon, 2-2, 4.78, are pretty much in line with his totals for those nine previous years, 55-57, 3.88, taking into account the violentswings in ERAs that are prevalent this early in the season. He pitched brillantly today.

Slopppy play by the Oakland battery enabled the Angels to fly ahead in the top of the fifth. Rojas led off with a walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch during Anthony Bemboon´s at bat. Bemboon singled to right, sending Rojas to third.

David Fletcher bunted towards first, making hard enough contact to enable Olson to charge down the line, field the ball cleanly, and flip it like a frisibee in time for Aramis García, who was waiting at home, to tag Rojas. Only he didn’t tag him.

The ball bounced off the catcher’s mitt, Rojas scored, and Bemboom reached second. The play was ruled a fielder’s choice with an error charged to García. After Justin Upton flew out to left for the second out, Ohtani, who had yet to get a hit in the series, came to the plate. Before he could do anything, Montás unleashed a wild pitch that scored Bemboon and allowed Fletcher to reach second.

Then Ohtani lined a single to left that drove in Fletcher. He proceeded to steal second on a pitchso far outside that García made a nice play merely to catch it. Rendon’s single to right drove in Ohtani with the Halos’ fourth unearned run of the frame. Things were beginning to look like a mirror image of Wednesday´s game between these two teams.

Montás was pitching a nice comeback inning in the sixth, having struck out Lagares and Rojas, when Kean Wong´s double off the right center field wall drove him out of the box. Cam Bedrosian replaced him for the next inning and a third.

Montás had thrown 98 pitches, 68 of them strikes. 10% of the remaining 30 were wild pitches. He’d gone 5-2/3 innings and allowed four runs, none of which was earned, on six hits. He walked only one batter, but that was offset by his three wild pitches. He notched seven Ks.

Deolis Guerra took over for Montás to start the eighth and stayed on for an inning and a third, leaving in the top of the ninth with a runner on first after having struck out two Angels and yielded a walk and a hit but no runs. That was because Sergio Romo stranded Fletcher, who had gotten the hit, at first, striking out Upton and getting Ohtani to foul out to third. Ohtani, by the way, went 2 for 5 for the day.

Cobb had pitched a terrific game for Los Angeles before being lifted after seven innings, replaced by southpaw Tony Watson. The veteran starter had shut the Athletics out on three hits and wo walks. He struck out eight. He did this on 101 pitches, 58 strikes. For the ninth, Raisel Iglesias took over for Watson, who had retired the A’s in order in his one inning of work, and did the same in his.

The series and the homestand will end tomrrow. The Athletics plan to pitch Cole Irvin (3-6, 3.92) against José Quintana (0-3, 7.92), both of them southpaws.

A’s reach out and touch up Ohtani for runs in the 6th and 7th for 3-1 win

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Los Angeles (AL) 1 – 6 – 1

Oakland         3 – 5-  1

By Lewis Rubman

Fri May 28, 2021

Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon (right) goes out to relieve pitcher Shohei Ohtani (17) in the seventh inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri May 28, 2021

OAKLAND–In Spanish, Major League Baseball is called la gran carpa, The Big Top. And Shohei Ohtani is a three ring circus; he can hit, pitch, and field with the best of them. He  was scheduled to pitch for the Angels when they opened a four game series against the A’s Thursday night at the Coliseum, but San Francisco’s rush hour traffic delayed his arrival long enough to prevent him from completing his preparation for his mound duties.

Instead, he batted second as the Angel’s DH and went 0 for three, postponing his season’s mound debut against the A’s until Friday night. He brought a 1-0, 3.69 record with him. Neither his batting average of .266 nor his 1-0, 3.69 pitching record is, at first glance,  impressive numbers, but that changes on closer examination.

As a batter, Ohtani had an OPS of .944 with 15 home runs in 177 bats before the day began. That’s a homer for every 11.8 ABs.  only three earned runs in his last 20-2/3 innings.

In spite of his respectable but not outstanding ERA, all of the runs scored against him came in five of the 32 innings he’d pitched. Ohtani has great movement on the ball until the A’s reached him for a run in the sixth inning and was relieved by Steven Cishek in the 3-1 Oakland victory.

He features a  four seamer, a slider, and a split finger fast ball, in that order of frequency, and he mixes them effectively. Going into tonight’s game, hitters were batting .049 in 42 at bats against his splitter this year, a figure that is consistent with his lifetime performance in MLB of .050 in an even hundred ABs. His fastest pitch so far this season was 101.1 mph.

The numbers for Oakland’s  starter, Sean Manaea,  3-2, 4.17, aren’t particularly prepossessing. He started the season poorly, getting knocked about by Houston in his first start, when he needed 101 pitches to get through 4-2/3 innings in which he gave up five runs on six hits and a walk.

His next four starts, in which he went 3-0, 1.50, including a seven inning complete game shutout at the Coliseum, were more successful.  He finished April at 3-1, 2.83.

But this month  has proved a disaster for him.  In his five May starts before today, he received the decision only once, an 8-1 loss at Fenway in which he lasted a mere two innings.

His earned run average so far this month was 5.68. Any mention of Manaea and the Red Sox has to include the no hitter he pitched against them on April 21, 2018 in the Coliseum.

For a moment it looked as if the Angels would draw first blood in the top of the third, when with no out and David Fletcher on first with a walk, Justin Upton, who had opened the game with a ground out to short, sent a seeing eye low drive in the hole between Andrus and Chapman, putting men on first and second and the numbers two, three, and four batters coming to the plate.  Manaea  got the powerful Jared Walsh to go down swinging at round house curves.

Then Anthony Rendon sent a hard liner to right center that Mark Canha, filling in for Ramon Laureano, tracked down and captured for the second out. That brought up clean up hitter Juan Legares. He hit a hard grounder Jed Lowrie, made a wonderful back hand stab to catch and a crisp throw to first to end the inning.

Things began to heat up in a less pleasant way when Ohtani nearly beaned Canha with a 94 mph fast ball, which caused both dugouts to empty. But things quieted down, and Canha struck out into a double play, ex-Athletic cathcer Kurt Suzuki threw to shortstop José Rojas to get the second out.

The exciting fielding continued with an inning ending running catch by Taylor Ward of Tony Kemp´s liner to right field to end the inning. Seth Brown topped that by making a diving grab of  Phil Gooselin’s dying quail just inside the right field foul line that opened the Los Angeles fourth, an inning in which Manaea retired the Angels in order.

 The Angels increased the pressure on Manaea in the top of the fifth. Suzuki led off with a slicing double to left. David Fletcher bunted him over to third. Manaea walked Upton and once more had to deal with Walsh in a dangerous situation. This time, he got the slugger to ground into a double play, Andrus to Olson, on a 93 mph sinker.

All the while, Ohtani was breezing through the Oakland line up, yielding only a pair of base on balls and and then Andrus’s single in the third before Andrus got his second single, to center, like first. This time, Canha was almost hit by a pitch.

Ohtani plunked him with a four seamer that travelled 92 mph. Kemp lay down a beautiful bunt that Ohtani fielded, considered throwing third but decided to get the sure out at first, and the A’s had runners on second and third with one down.

Olson sent a fly to deep left field, a very different sort of sacrifice than Kemp’s bunt in front of home but equally effective in moving up both runners. One of those was, of course, Canha, who scored the first run of the game for either team. Ohtani’s strike out of Seth Brown seemed anti-climactic.

Oakland’s lead was short lived. A one out Texas League single to left center by Rojas, a sacrifice by Suzuki, and Fletcher´s single to left, and the game was tied at one, ending Manaea’s  tenure on the mound.  Yusmeiro Petit came in to face the top of the Angels’ order. He did it successfully by wiffing Upton, staying on to throw a 1-2-3 top of the eighth.

Manaea left the game with 6-2/3 innings under his belt. He gave up six hits but only one run, which was earned. He walked three and struck out eight. 61 of his 94 pitches were strikes. After ths gutsy performance, Manaea’s ERA dropped to 3.86, but he had to settle for a no decision.

Ohtani weakened in the seventh. He issued two straight walks, to Lowrie and Moreland, to open the frame. Chapman’s single to left would have loaded the bases with no outs, but Upton fumbled it, and his error allowed Lowrie to score the run that put Oakland ahead, 2-1.

That was all for Ohtani. Steve Cishek, who relieved him, surrendered a single to left center to Murphy, which plated Moreland and put Chapman on third. Cishek also induced an inning ending around the horn  double play. His work done, he yielded to reliever Mike Mayers after the inning was over.

It was Lou Trivino who was given the task of closing out the game out for the green and gold. 

For sixth innings, Ohtani had pitched a beautiful game. He left it with a line of three runs, all earned but two of them scored after he was gone, allowed on three hits and four walks and a hit batter. 54 of his 93 offerings were strikes. For all that, he took the loss.

It was Lou Trivino who was given the task of closing out the game for the green and gold.

He set LA down in order to get his seventh save. The win went to Petit, his seventh of the year.             

Before the game, the  A’s announced that that they had placed left handed reliever Reymin Guduan on the 10-day injured list retroactive to May 26 with a strained right groin and that they had replaced him on the roster with the righty relief pitcher Jordan Weems.

They also made another move, one that could be more significant, by taking  A.J. Puk off the injured list and optioning  him to AAA Las Vegas, one short step away from the big club, who’ll probably use him, at least the first step, from the bull pen.

The schedule for the remaining games in the current A’s home stand is:

Saturday, May 29, Oakland Frankie Montás (5-4, 4.92) will face Los Angeles Alex Cobb (2-2, 4.78) at 1:07.

Sunday, May 30, it will be Oakland Cole Irvin (3-6, 3.92) against Los Angeles José Quintana (0-4, 7.92), also at 1:07) 

Monday, May 31, Oakland James Kaprielian vs. Los Angeles TBA at 1:10.

A’s Kaprielian dominates M’s pitches 7 innings of shutout ball in 6-3 win

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

Seattle 3 – 7 – 0

Oakland 6 – 8 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Wed May 26, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A’s fall short in late innings lose third straight game to Seattle 4-3

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

Seattle 4 – 11 – 1

Oakland 3 – 8 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Tue May 25, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mariners score early for 4-2 win over A’s; M’s Kikuchi goes six one earned run

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

Seattle 4 -6 – 0

Oakland. 2 – 5 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Mon May 24, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara Mason: A’s open three game series against Seattle tonight

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The Los Angeles Angels share congratulations after their come back win against the Oakland A’s at Angels Stadium in Anaheim on Sun May 24, 2021 (AP News photo)

On the A’s podcast with Barbara:

#1 The Oakland A’s (28-20) opened up their final game with the Los Angeles Angels (20-27) the A’s Matt Olson and Seth Brown both hit home runs scoring three runs in the top of the second and a run in the third to grab an early 4-0 lead.

#2 Down 4-2 the Angels came back scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh Shohei Otani hit a sac fly to right to score Upton to tie the game. Iglesias got a base hit to score Rojas to take the lead 5-4 for the Angels.

#3 The A’s were able to tie the game for a last chance at the brass ring in the top of the eighth making as Sean Murphy got on on an infield single that scored Olson on a throwing error 5-5

#4 The Angels got a go ahead run in the bottom of the eighth when Upton hit a sac fly to left as Ward tagged up and scored which turned out to be the game winner for a 6-5 win.

#5 It’s back to the Oakland Coliseum as the Seattle Mariners will pay a visit and start pitcher Yusei Kikuchi (1-3 ERA 4.32) and the A’s will go with Frankie Montas (5-3 ERA 4.79) a 6:40 pm PDT first pitch.

Join Barbara for the A’s podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s find out how desperate the Angels are in frustrating 6-5 loss

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Los Angeles Angels closer Raisel Iglesias (32) gives thanks to the good Lord after sealing a victory against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum on Sun May 24, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Morris Phillips

Once the A’s home run show concluded, the Angels’ desperation act commenced. It proved to be a powerful force at the Big A on Sunday afternoon.

Down 4-1 in the sixth, the Angels rallied with a run in the sixth, three in the seventh and the tie-breaking, game winner in the eighth courtesy of Justin Upton’s run scoring sacrifice fly.

With the rally, the Angels avoided an embarrassing sweep by their rivals at home, as well as a sixth loss in seven games since their team leader Mike Trout went on the injured list with a calf strain.

“We feel that we have put ourselves in position for a win and it just hasn’t worked out for us,” Upton said. “Hopefully this will spark the club.”

The A’s hit eight home runs in the series including a two-run shot from Seth Brown and another from Matt Olson on Sunday. They also got a quality start from Sean Manaea over five innings, but couldn’t get it to stand up.

“Give credit to them. They didn’t just roll over and let us have one,” Sean Murphy said. “Tough game sometimes.”

Dylan Bundy got the start for the Angels but didn’t survive the third inning as he was lifted by manager Joe Maddon after just 50 pitches. Five relievers followed but all were on point keeping the A’s off the scoreboard the remainder of the afternoon.

The A’s maintain their 1 1/2 game lead in the AL West despite the loss, and they’re just a game behind the Red Sox and Rays for the American League’s best record.

The A’s are back at home on Monday for the start of a three-game set with the Mariners. Frankie Montas gets the start in the opener in a matchup with Seattle’s Yusei Kikuchi.

A’s top Angels 6-2; Bassitt pitches seven plus for the win

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Oakland A’s starter Chris Bassitt throws against the Los Angeles Angels line up in the first inning on his way to a win at Angels Stadium on Sat May 22, 2021 (AP News photo)

A’s Top Angels In Game Two

By Barbara Mason

Friday night the Oakland A’s (28-19) beat the Los Angeles Angels (19-27) 8-4 at Anaheim 8-4. After two back to back losses to the Houston Astros, the A’s showed some definite signs of getting back on track with their first win against the Angels. Game Two on Saturday would be the deciding factor.

Were they really back to the play that kept them in first place in their division for weeks? Yes they were as A’s starter Chris Bassitt threw seven plus innings and held the Angels to only two runs in the 6-2 victory at Angels Stadium in Anaheim.

The Angels despite their recent struggles are still a very good ball club. A second win for the A’s would be a very promising sign that this team is back to their winning ways.

Chris Bassitt was on the mound for Oakland and Patrick Sandoval opened for the Angels. The A’s would rebound.

The A’s first inning was a good one. Mark Canha hit a triple and he scored when Matt Chapman hit a sacrifice fly. Oakland had an early 1-0 lead. Canha had a double in the third inning and would score to extend Oakland’s lead to 2-0.

Then the green and gold homeruns came to life. Matt Olson had one in the sixth inning and Aramis Garcia had a second homerun in the seventh inning for a 4-0 A’s lead. Oakland’s Seth Brown would add a third homer with Tony Kemp on base and the A’s now led 6-0. So far in this series the A’s had seven home runs and seven doubles.

It sure looked like Oakland was cruising to their second win in this series. After seven innings Chris Bassitt was still on the mound. He already had six strikeouts and continued to throw hard in the eighth inning with an 85 pitch count. He was having a great outing.

The Angels got on the board in the eighth inning when Lagares and Iglesias scored trailing Oakland 6-2. After Ohtani hit a triple Chris Bassitt left the game. There were two outs when Petit came into the game and it would be up to him to get that third out. That third out was realized in quick order and this game would go into the ninth inning,

Diekman would come in to save this game. It would be a three up, three down and into the clubhouse for Oakland to celebrate their second win in the series. Tomorrow the A’s will go for the sweep. With the Astros and the Mariners both losing the A’s were taking advantage of the inter division schedule.

Sunday the A’s will start Sean Manea (3-2 ERA 4.41) and starting for the Angels Dylan Bundy (0-5 ERA 6.02) will be on the mound for Game Three. First pitch is at 1:07 PM.

A’s Break Two Game Losing Streak Beating Angels 8-4

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The Oakland A’s Chad Pinder (4) holds onto the ball after rolling over to hold onto the baseball after Los Angeles Angels Jose Igelesias (4) hit a fly ball on Fri May 21, 2021 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim (AP News photo)

A’s Break Two Game Losing Streak Beating the Angels

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s have gotten off track in their past few games. They dropped two in a row to the Houston Astros falling into second place in their division. They are now a half a game behind Houston after holding down first place for weeks.

The team is now struggling with leaving runners stranded on base. This has haunted them here and there throughout the season. They seemed to have turned it around and then it surfaced again in the Astro series. The A’s hope to leave the memory of the Houston Astros all behind them as they opened a three game series against the Los Angeles Angels with a 8-4 win.

Friday night the A’s began a three game series with the Angels who have trouble of their own with the loss of Mike Trout to injury. Kaprieliian was on the mound for Oakland and for the Angels, Quintana got the nod.

Mark Canha would give the A’s a brief lead in the third inning with his ninth home run of the year but the Angels would answer in the same inning. Jose Iglesias homered to tie up the game 1-1. Again the A’s had left runners on base through the first four innings.

In the top of the sixth inning the A’s got something going. Laureano doubled and Pinder singled. A double by Sean Murphy would drive in Laureano and Pinder. Oakland now led 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. The Angels Jared Walsh would make things very interesting when he homered cutting the A’s lead to 3-2. With two outs Yusmeiro Petit would take over on the mound.

It was a tough inning for Petit allowing hits by Ward, Rojas and a triple by Lagares. Ward and Rojas would both score giving the Angels their first lead of the game 4-3.

In the seventh inning the A’s had a chance to tie up the game but Mark Canha was thrown out at home, the second time for the A’s in this game. Matt Olson was also thrown out at home in the third inning. With two outs in the seventh Chad Pinder would knock the ball out of the park to give the A’s the lead back 6-4. It was time for another pitching change for Anaheim.

Anthony Rendon very nearly tied up the game but Ramon Laureano stole a probable home run hit deep in center field. Laureano leaped up to snag the ball and save the lead for the A’s. We have seen this same play time and time again from the center fielder.

Laureano who was 3 for 3 in this game came to the plate in the top of the ninth inning. He went 4 for 4 hitting a home run extending the A’s lead to 7-4. Oakland was not finished. Jed Lowry hit a homerun and the A’s led 8-4. It was Lowry’s fourth homer of the year.

Lou Trivino was the closer in the bottom of the ninth. The game would end on a very nice defensive play. A double play would hand the A’s the win.

It was a great win and coupled with the Astros and Mariners losing it was good news all-around for Oakland. The A’s and Angels will tangle tomorrow in Game Two. First pitch is at 7:07.