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Oakland Athletics pitcher JP Sears works against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at the Oakland Coliseum Sun Aug 20, 2023 (AP News photo)

Baltimore (77-47). 112 300 230. -12. 17. 0

Oakland (34-90) 000 000 100- 1. 4. 0

Time: 2:43

Attendance; 16,198

Sunday, August 20, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The bleary eyed Oakland A’s dragged themselves to the stately pleasure dome to take the field at this afternoon in hopes of salvaging one win out of their three game series with the American League East leading Baltimore Orioles. Those hopes were dashed by a crushing 12-1 defeat.

The A’s were mathematically eliminated Sunday. This is the earliest in the history of this storied franchise, a founding member of the American League since 1901.  122 Years of history, from Philadelphia to Kansas City, to Oakland. And in a few years, probably Las Vegas. With a 34-90 record #30 in MLB.

They chose JP Sears to make his team leading 25th start of the season. He’s the only member of the Athletics’ mound staff to be in the starting rotation since day one. His record is not impressive, 2-9, 4.27 at game time.

The 27 year old southpaw seems to pitch better as his starts progress, if his opponents’ steadily diminishing batting average over the first three times through the order is any indication. This hot Oakland afternoon, not propitious for a pitcher who had allowed 26 home runs when he toed the rubber at 1:08. When he had finished his afternoon’s work, he had tarnished his already unprepossessing statistical profile.

He had given up seven runs, all earned, on nine hits and two walks. Two of those hits were homes. He threw 68 pitches, 43 for strikes. He was charged with the loss, making his numbers 2-10, 4.61). Zach Neal replaced him to start the top of the fifth.

Kyle Bradish, Sears’ right handed opposing pitcher, has a five pitch repertoire,which consists of sliders (which had comprised 29.8% of his 2023 deliveries before today), fastballs (25.1%), sinkers (18.8%), curves (17.5%), and changeups (8.8%).

They had earned him a respectable 7-6. 3.18 record. He was brilliant this afternoon, holding Oakland scoreless on two hits, both singles, over six innings. He issued just one base on balls and struck out eight, all on 92 pitches, 60 of which went into the books as strikes. He got the win and now has a record of 8-6, 3.03.

The Orioles were the early bird in the scoring department. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with Ramón Urías at bat. He hit a hard grounder to Jordan Dîaz at third, who fired the ball to Zack Gelof at second. Gelof’s relay drew Seth Brown off the bag at first, allowing Adlley Rutschman,, who had led off the game with a single. to come home. The A’s challenged first base umpire Alex Tosi’s call, but the review crew in New York let it stand.

The Orioles feathered their nest with two outs in the second. Jorge Mateo slammed a change of pace off the State Farm advertisement in left center. He flew around the bases for an inside the park home run. They doubled that two run. margen in the next frame.

Back to back two baggers by Ryan Montcastle and Gunnar Henderson put two men in scoring position with none d0wn. Austin Hays hit a liner up the middle that Sears deflected into left field for a two RBI single and then was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double.

Undeterred by their failure to score more runs in the third, Baltimore added another three in the fourth on Jordan Westburg’s lead off double, a walk to Rutschman, Montecastle second consecutive home run, and Henderson’s triple, which occasioned a crew chief’s review to determine exactly where it made contact with the right field wall. The visitors had a 7-0 lead, and we’d seen only 3-1/2 innings of one-sided baseball.

Oakland didn’t put a man on base until Gelof sent a line drive into right for a one out single in the home half of the fourth. He stayed there for the rest of the frame.

Neal blanked the O’s in the fifth and sixth. In the latter, he was the beneficiary of a beautiful unassisted double play by Brown, who grabbed Mateo’s scorching liner down the first base line and tumbled over the bag to double up Ryan McKenna, who had walked.

Neal wasn’t that successful in seventh. Henderson hit his 21st homer of the year, just inside the right field foul line, a one out shot that made it an 8-0 game. Back to back to back singles by Urías, Mullens, and Westburg made it 9-0.

Nick Vespi came in to relieve Bradish for the bottom of the seventh and immediately gave up a home run down the left field line to Rooker, the rookie’s 20th quadrilateral hit of the year. That was the Athletics’ third hit of the day and gave them their first run.

Mateo’s leadoff double against the Coca-Cola ad in right center in the eighth overcame The Curse when Rutschman singled to center, scoring Mateo, and Henderson doubled down the right field line to drive Rutschman home and Neal to the showers, replaced by Francisco Pérez. He surrendered a single to Urías that brought in Henderson to give Baltimore an even dozen runs. That was all he gave up in his 1-2/3 of work.

Shintaro Fujinami, who gave up the game tying round tripper to Aledmys Díaz last night, gave up a leadoff single but preserved the Orioles’ 12-1 victory

This afternoon’s defeat left the A;s with a mark of 34-90, .274. That’s pretty good, compared with the 1899 Cleveland Spiders’ August 20 record of 18-91, .165. They lost to the Chicago Orphans, 8-7, that afternoon. The 1962 New York Mets had an even worse August 20.

They dropped both games of a double header to the Pirates at Forbes Field, 2-0 and 6-3, which put their record at 30-94, .242.

Monday, the A’s will face the Kansas City Royals at 6:40pm PT. Paul Blackburn (3-4, 4.09) will be on the mound at the Coliseum. KC hasn’t yet announced who will pitch for them. Starting tomorrow with their night game at Oakland vs Royals, Athletics have 40 games left.

Former Oakland A’s pitcher now Baltimore Orioles reliever Shintaro Fujinami delivers against his former teammates in the bottom of the sixth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Aug 19, 2023 (AP News photo)

Baltimore (76-47). 002 000 000 5 – 7-9-0

Oakland (34-89) 010 001 000 0- 2-6-1 (10 innings)

Time: 2:47

Attendance: 18,213

Saturday, August 19, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The team with the best won and lost record Baltimore Orioles (76-47) in the American League took 10 innings to crush the team with the worst won and lost record in the majors the Oakland A’s (34-89) 7-2 Saturday night at the Oakland Coliseum .

The game began as a pitchers’ duel between two southpaws. Cole Irvin 1-3. 4.92 at game time), the Athletics team leader in wins, starts, innings pitched, and strikeouts last year, and Oakland rookie Ken Waldichuk (2-7, 6.07 at game time), who has had an up and down season, often within the same game, this year were the antagonists.

Waldichuk had trouble with his control in the three innings, issuing a base on balls in each of them and unleashing a wild pitch in the second. On the other hand, he didn’t give up a hit over that stretch. At the end of his 5-2/3 inning shift, the Athletics’ starter had yielded two runs, both earned and both coming on home runs, on four hits, three walks, and two wild pitches.

He threw 81 pitches, 50 of them considered strikes. He wasn’t involved in the decision and went home with a record of 2-7, 5.91

Cole pitched well in his no decision. He allowed one run earned, on four hits, including a homer, and a walk He struck out three and hit two Oakland batters. He pitch count was 77, 54 going down as strikes. He preserve his 1-3 win-lost record and reduced his ERA to 4.06.

Aledmys Díaz put the A’s up 1-0 in the early going, sending a leadoff home run over the left center field State Farm advertisement in the bottom of the second. The blast travelled 400 feet, with an exit velocity of 102.6mph and came off a 91.4mph four seamer. It was the third rounder tripper and 18th RBI for the A’s left fielder this year.

Austin Hays broke Waldichuk’s 13 batter hitless streak in the top of the fourth with a one out home run to left, and James McCann followed that one out later with a dinger to left center. Before you knew it, the A’s down 2-0, Hays’ blast carried 356 feet and was his 12th of the season; McCann’s measured 403 feet and was his fourth.

Lucas Ercceg relieved Waldichuk with a runner on first and two outs in the top of the sixth and fanned James McCann to end the inning and held Baltimore at bay in the seventh . Kirby Snead replaced him for the eighth and preserved the tie.

The Orioles removed Cole at the start of the home half of the sixth but continued using ex Athletics aginst their erstwhile teammates. This time it was Shintaro Foujinami, who promptly surrender the lead on Aledmys’s second home run of the night, a 360 foot line drive over the left field fence. Vennnier Cano replaced Fujinami for the Oakland seventh,

Zack Gelof led off the Athletics’s eighth with a single to center. After Carlos Pérez sacrificed him to second, Cionel Pérez relieved Cano. Pérez kept the A’s off the board with an intentional walk and two strikeouts.

Hays greeted Trevor May, who was given the task of taking the A’s into the bottom of the ninth frame, with a single to shallow left center. Cedric Mullens lashed a sharp liner to left that Ruíz captured for the first out. Hays advanced to second on pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn’s slow bouncer to shortstop Nick Allen, who made a spiffy play to nab him at first, and Adam Frazier, also pinch hitting, popped out to Allen in foul territory.

Félix Bautista was called on to keep the game alive in the home ninth. Another sixth frame pinch hitter, Seth Brown, went down swinging. Seth Langelieres lifted a high fly to the warning track in right center, just in front of the 362 foot marker that Mulllens hauled down for the second out, and Alllen grounded out to short to send us into extra innings.

Adrián Martínez faced Jorge Mateo with Frazier the zombie runner on second to open the overtime. He let Frazier take third on a wild pitch to Mateo, who then walked. Frazier scored on Ryan Mountcastle’s’s single to center through a drawn in infield while Mateo advanced to third.

It was all downhill for Oakland after that. A hit batter. Jordan Westburg’s sac fly to the center field warning track. A fielder’s choice cum throwing error by Allen, a stolen base, and a single, and the Athletics’ comeback had been transformed into a 7-2 Orioles lead.

Jacob Webb, closing for Baltimore in the tenth, hit Ruiz with a pitch and walked Gelof, which, combined with the inning opening placement of Lngeliers at second, loaded the bases for the A’s with no outs. Webb recovered by fanning pinch hitting Tony Kemp, Butler, and Aledmys Díaz.

The win went to Bautista, now 8-2, 1.54; the loss, to Martínez, who fell to 0-1, 5.

Kansas City has been falling behind (or is it ahead?) in the race for the bottom, so we’ll just run a quick check on how the 2023 A’s stack up with the all-time cellar dwellers, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, and their modern era companions in futility, the 1962 New York Mets.

The Spiders finished 1899 at 20-134, .130, 84 games behind the National League pennant winning Brooklyn Superbas. August 19th saw them split a twin bill with the Pirates at Pittsburgh. Cleveland’s win in the night cap brought its record up to 18-90, .167.

The Mets limped to a 40-120, 2.50 finish in ’62. They were at home at the Polo Grounds when they fell to the Cardinals, 10-5 on August 19. 30-92, also .250.

Tonight’s loss to the Os left the A’s 34-89,.238

The three game series will concludes Sunday, at 1:07. Right hander Kyle Bradish (7-6, 3.18) will pitch for the Birds. Southpaw JP Sears (2-9,4.27) will be the host team’s starter.