Another tough day at the ballpark. The A’s dropped the second game of their weekend series against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday afternoon, falling 14-6 and setting themselves up for a possible home sweep tomorrow in the finale. Gotta brush these past two off and take tomorrow’s contest.
A’s take quick lead
The A’s offense didn’t wait around long to get going this afternoon. Leadoff man Nick Kurtz collected a single on the first pitch out of the hand of Cleveland starting pitcher Slade Cecconi
and that was immediately followed by a Shea Langeliers 2-run blast that put the A’s up 2-0 just two batters into their lineup:
Home run #9 for Bangeliers right there. That wouldn’t be the last we’d hear from the expecting dad this afternoon either.
A couple innings later the A’s would add onto the lead in the fourth. A couple singles from Brent Rooker and Jacob Wilson put an Athletic in scoring position and with one out Jeff McNeil swatted a ball into left field. There was a close play at the plate and Rook was initially called out, but a replay review showed that he beat the throw and touched home plate. 3-0 A’s:
A good start from the offense, though they’d need more later on in this one.
Lopez sharp early, falters late
Lefty Jacob Lopez entered today’s contest with more walks than strikeouts on the season to go along with his 5.84 ERA. Those aren’t great numbers and with the team in first place and other arms in the depth chart waiting for their chance, Lopez came into this one needing a quality outing.
That’s what we got for the early stages of the game. Lopez retired six of the first seven batters he faced this afternoon, only allowing a second-inning single that was stranded at first. It wasn’t until the third that he got tagged for a solo home run off the bat of Austin Hedges, but through four innings Lopez was in control.
Then came the fifth inning. A double and single brought in the Guardians’ second run against Lopez. That was followed by another single, bringing up Cleveland star Jose Ramirez to the plate. Lopez made a mistake pitch, leaving it right in Ramirez’s wheel house and he made him pay with a two-run two-bagger that doubled the Guardians’ runs and took the lead. Ramirez wasn’t done as he stole third and came home to score on a sacrifice fly to center. When the inning was through the Guardians had crossed home plate four times and taken the lead.
A’s fight back, but Guardians add on
The A’s got one of those runs back in the bottom half of the frame when Langeliers, clearly excited to welcome his baby any minute now, crushed his second home run of the game, his 10th of the season:
What a day at the plate for him. Today was his eighth career multi-homer game and it came at a great time for the Green & Gold. He’d ultimately finish the day 3-for-5 and currently leads all of baseball in total hits. Best catcher in the division? The sport?
While the A’s chipped away, manager Mark Kotsay decided to roll the dice. At 90 pitches Lopez was sent back out to start the sixth, and on his second pitch of the inning he got tagged for a solo home run off the bat of David Fry, essentially wiping away Langeliers’ blast just moments earlier. He remained in for one more batter and finished his day on a high note with a strikeout of Travis Bazzana, but overall a tough day at the park for the left-hander
- Jacob Lopez: 5 1/3 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 96 pitches
Lopez probably should have come out after that fifth but still. Another rough one from Lopez and his season ERA now stands at 6.60 through 30 innings. He managed to keep the walks down with a season-low one free pass allowed, but that was cancelled out by a season-high 8 hits allowed. No guarantee he’s sticking in the rotation another turn at this point, and the team has to be thinking about their other options at this point, even if they’re not quite ready to pull the plug on the left-hander. Scott Barlow relieved Lopez and finished off the frame.
Guardians pull away
The A’s got that run back in the bottom half of the frame. A leadoff single and double put two runners in scoring position with no outs. McNeil brought one of them home on a sacrifice fly that cut the deficit to just one and the A’s still had a runner third with just one out. Lawrence Butler walked to put runners at the corners. After a pop out though Butler was picked off at first base by a quick throw from Austin Hedges, ending the threat and costing the A’s dearly. Butler has been absent minded on the basepaths this year and it’s becoming an actual problem that the team needs to address.
Still only down one, the A’s needed a shutdown inning. They did not get that. Barlow plunked two batters in the top of the seventh, sandwiched around a pair of fly outs. Lefty Hogan Harris came on to get that third and final critical out but instead a Guardian base knock brought a runner home and kept the line going. Another walk loaded the bases for Bazzana and this time he made the A’s pay with a two-run single that made it a 9-5 contest. That was Bazzana’s first career base hit, as well so a good time for him to get some memorabilia. As for the A’s, this one was quickly getting out of hand for the home team.
We also had a Luis Morales sighting this afternoon. Only hours after being called back up from Triple-A he came in to handle the top of the eighth. The young gun displayed both why he’s such an exciting prospect, and why he can be infuriating to watch at times. He walked the first two batters he faced before punching out the next two. Then the back breaker: a three-run shot off the bat of Kyle Manzardo that busted this game wide open. He got out of the frame, but not before issuing another walk, and he also gave up two more runs in mop up work in the ninth. He now has a 14.46 ERA on the year.
Down seven runs the offense didn’t give up. The A’s managed to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth and got a run on a Kurtz RBI single. Langeliers stepped to the plate with a chance to make this a game again, but alas, a pop out ended the threat. The A’s went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to finally end this beatdown.
Well that wasn’t fun. The pitching staff got absolutely torched for the second day in a row, even worse than last nights. If you remove Langeliers from the lineup today the A’s only managed to score a trio of runs. Lopez was off yet again and his spot in the rotation has to be in question, and the bullpen got lit up for eight runs in just over three innings of work (most of that against Morales). Tough performance all around and one that the A’s need to flush and forget about. They’re still alone in first place as of this posting (though depending on tonight’s Mariners contest, we may have some company atop the division soon) and are still above .500 so the sky isn’t falling. It’d be nice to get that first May win out of the way though. This was the month that sank last year’s squad from being a Wild Card contender.
We have the series finale tomorrow and the A’s will be desperate for a win. It’ll be right-hander Aaron Civale going for the A’s as he’ll attempt to play stopper and get the squad back on track and back in the win column. He’ll be pitching against the team that he spent the first four and a half years of his career with, so he’ll be looking to prove something against his former squad. The Guardians meanwhile have young left-hander Parker Messick going for them against Civale. He has been fantastic for them as he’s sporting a shiny 1.73 ERA so far through six starts this season. He also came close to a no-hitter a couple outings ago, so the A’s bats will surely have their work cut out for them tomorrow afternoon in the finale. Let’s hope they can manage to salvage one game in this series before hitting the road next week.
