Oakland A’s catcher Shea Langeliers takes a hack while the ball takes a piece of the bat in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Oakland Coliseum on Mon Apr 29, 2024 (AP News photo)
Monday, April 29, 2024
Pittsburgh (14-16). 100 000 000 1. 2. 0
Athletics (13-17). 100 220 00x. 5. 8. 0
Time: 2:18
Attendance: 3,528
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND–With Monday night’s 5-1 defeat of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 2024 version of the Nomad Athletics have shown that, while they might not yet be playoff contenders, they are a respectable baseball team. They now have won four of their last six games and 12 out of their last 22. Their three pitchers of the evening held their opponents to just two hits and none between the first and ninth innings.
It’s depressing to read what the A’s game notes had to say about the team’s Joe Boyle, the team’s starting pitcher. They say that he is “tied for fifth in the majors among rookies in games started (5) and ranks ninth in strikeouts (24) …leads ML rookies in most runs (18), ranks second in most walks (16)…. Has taken the loss in four of his first five starts and is tied for second in the majors in losses.” You get the picture.
Monday night, though, in spite of a rough opening frame, the youngster lasted five innings and left with a 5-1 lead, when Dany Jiménez replaced him to open the visitors’ sixth. Boyle had allowed only one hit, but also yielded four free passes. Those five innings weren’t elegant; he needed 91 pitches (45 strikes) to get through them. He was the winning pitcher improved his numbers 2-4, 6.08. Not good, but better than the 1-4, 7.06 he began with.
Pittsburgh’s starter, the 26 year old Bailey Falter, whom they got in exchange from the Phillies in exchange for Rodolfo Castro at last year’s trade deadline, brought a 2-3, 3.33 record to the Coliseum. He had gone seven plus innings in Milwaukee in his last start, earning the win by holding the Brewers to one run, earned, on three hits and two walks.
Monday night, he was less impressive. He lived up to his name by faltering in the fourth and becoming undone in the fifth, after which Roansy Contreras replaced him on the mound. Falter had allowed five runs, all earned, on six hits, one of them yard, in his brief stint. He did not, however, give up any bases on balls. He took the loss and dropped to 2-2 while his ERA rose to 4.22.
The first inning was a study in contrasts. Boyle was the absence of control personified. 10 of his 26 offerings were balls, two of them were wild pitches; and he issued two free passes. Yet he logged a swinging strikeout and escaped from the impending disaster trailing by a single run.
Falter, on the other hand, found the plate with ease; he got through the inning on 14 pitches, 12 of them for strikes. But he found the plate with too much ease, and Tyler Nevin sent a 91 mph four seamer of his over the left centerfield fence, where it landed, 404 feet from home, to tie the game at one. It was the third round tripper of his big league career and came in his 23rd at bat. That stretched the rookie’s consecutive game hitting streak to seven.
Boyle settled down, Falter was steady, and the score remained knotted until the bottom of the fourth, when the green and gold broke through with a pair of tallies. Brent Rooker led off with a single to right. Abraham Toro smacked a line drive to right center that went past Jack Suwinski and sliced back towards the foul line for a double that sent Rooker to third.
Shea Langeliers’ high fly to the warning track in center drove in Rooker and brought Toro to within 90 feet of home, which he reached on Max Schuemann’s sacrifice fly to left. The homeless wonders now led, 3-1.
They piled it on in the fifth. Darell Hernaiz led off with a single to left center, was bunted over to second by Nick Allen, and scored on a single by Esteury Ruíz, who promptly stole third and came home on Nevin’s sac fly to right.
The A’s threatened again against Contreras in the sixth, loading the bases on a Langelliers’ double and two walks, one intentional, before Allen took a called third strike for the third out. The A’s didn’t score against Contreras in the seventh, and Kyle Nicolas relieved him for the eighth. This time Allen made the final out of a scoreless inning by swinging at the third strike.
Jiménez did a nice job of maintaining the Athletics’ lead, holding the Bucos to just a walk while striking out four in two innings, after which Michael Kelly took over mound duties and tossed a perfect top of the eighth, with a little help from a beautiful tumbling catch and throw by Schuemann at second to get the final out of the frame. He came back to finish the Pirates off in the top of the ninth.
He started off by getting Bryan Reynolds to take a called third strike but yielded a single to center by ONeil Cruz, who quickly was wiped out by a broken bat game inning 4-6-3 double play.
Tuesday, the A’s and Pirates will clash again at 6:40 in the second of a three game series. Alex Wood (1-2, 6.59) is expected to start for the Athletics and Mitch Keller (2-2, 5.14) will toe the rubber for the gang from Steel City.
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