The A’s dropped their series finale to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday evening, rallying late but coming up far short in a 5-1 loss. At least there’s an off day tomorrow to reset and recharge before starting the next series.
Springs steady, not immortal
Lefty vet Jeffrey Springs got the ball tonight for his 29th assignment this year. Looking to build off a pair of strong outings Springs had a quick 1-2-3 first inning before running into some trouble in the second. Though he’d escape thanks to a well-timed
strikeout, St. Louis broke through against Springs in the next frame. Regular DH Brent Rooker, manning right field tonight, misplayed a shallow flare to right that allowed two runs to score. If Lawrence Butler is there instead that ball is almost certainly caught, but alas he’s needed in center field with Denzel Clarke on the shelf.
From there Springs settled back in. He’d only allow one more hit over the rest of his outing, and immediately wiped that runner out on a groundball double play. Springs finished in line for the loss but he certainly didn’t deserve one tonight.
- Jeffrey Springs: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 87 pitches
Another quality start from the left-hander, who dropped his season ERA down a couple points to 4.13. He’ll take that mark into his next scheduled start, which will be against the Boston Red Sox, a former employer of his.
After Springs it was rookie right-hander Elvis Alvarado’s turn. It wasn’t a successful outing for him as he allowed a solo home run to push it to a 3-0 Cardinals lead and with the A’s offense sputtering, that felt like a mountain to climb.
A’s bats go silent (again)
For the second consecutive evening the Athletics’ offense did not show up ready to play. One day after scoring just one run on five hits the A’s could only up their hit total, not their runs. Facing lefty Matthew Liberatore, the bats just had nothing going for them for the majority of the contest. They managed just four hits off him while striking out seven times over five and a third innings, really only threatening once when Rooker doubled, but he was stranded.
Now into the Cardinals’ bullpen they didn’t have much better luck. The A’s did manage to get one run in the top of the eighth, courtesy of Nick Kurtz’s 28th home run of the year:
Don’t you love an oppo taco? 30 is within reach and he has all of September to get there. Considering how much time he missed this year it’s so exciting to see what he’ll be able to do in a full season next year.
Cardinals add on, bury A’s
The Athletics had finally cut into the deficit but the bullpen couldn’t keep it close. Right-hander Tyler Ferguson came on to handle the bottom of the eighth just hoping to keep it a two-run deficit. St. Louis had other ideas however and instead allowed a two-run RBI triple to Wilson Contreras, a former catcher not well known for his wheels. That made it 5-1 and the A’s were down to just three outs to go. They couldn’t manage anything but a double play in the ninth, losing their second straight game and securing the series loss.
Tonight drops the A’s to 64-77. Springs was looking pretty good tonight all things considered, but the offense just took too long to get revved up. I guess they wasted all their runs on Monday morning, huh?
We have an off day tomorrow before continuing the road trip. The club returns to California, heading down south to Anaheim to take on the Los Angeles Angels. The division rivals are just 2.5 games ahead of the A’s right now and passing them in the standings would be a huge moral win for this young squad. The Athletics plan to send rookie right-hander Mason Barnett to the mound for what will be his second career start. His first did not go smoothly as he allowed five runs over just four innings of work. He’ll hope to turn in a better outing in his second appearance against an Angels team that is in free fall. Los Angeles has yet to announce their starting pitcher opposite Barnett so keep an eye on who the Angels pick to go up against Barnett.
