Things weren’t great today at the park for the Athletics. They dropped their middle game of the series in Cleveland 12-6, dropping their second straight to the Guardians. They’re now staring down the barrel of another sweep. At least the final road game of the season is tomorrow.
The A’s struck first in this one. After the first two batters had uneventful at-bats to start things off the A’s got back-to-back singles from Shea Langeliers and Lawrence Butler. That brought up Zack Gelof and he delivered
a third straight hit to give the A’s their first run of the day:
Then it was Donovan Walton’s turn to get in on the two-out rally, smacking his own RBI hit to make it 2-0 A’s:
That gave their starter some runs to work with before even taking to the mound. It was lefty Jacob Lopez on the bump for the Athletics this afternoon. He’s turned things around recently but seemed to be faltering in his most recent starts. He came into this contest looking to right the ship and get himself back on track.
Things did not go well for him however. Cleveland got right to work against the southpaw, and they weren’t missing anything in the first. Lopez allowed two straight hits then a three-run home run to lose the lead, then another single and home run quickly gave the Guardians a bigger lead. That early advantage he was given was erased in the blink of an eye.
It only got worse from there for Lopez. He had a scoreless second inning but got hit hard again in the third. He’d depart before the end of the frame, leaving the bullpen responsible for at least 5 1/2 innings.
- Jacob Lopez: 2 2/3 IP, 10 H, 10 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 63 pitches
Owch. Lopez wasn’t fooling anyone this afternoon. Definitely his worst start of his career and it’s up there with the worst starts of the season in the entire league. He’ll try to forget about this one as quickly as possible. He’ll make one more start next week before the end of the year, and it lines up to be at home against the Houston Astros.
The offense wasn’t done after those two early runs. Walton collected another RBI base hit in the third:
The A’s would continue to try chipping away. Rookie center fielder Henry Bolte contributed an RBI single in the fourth. After that it was Walton again, this time getting all of this one for a two-run homer in the fifth:
That would be it for the scoring for the A’s today. They’d go down quietly over the final frames, ensuring the loss this evening.
Another tough day at the park. The bats got some work in but fell short today. Lopez looked like the pitcher we saw all summer instead of the guy we watched the past few weeks. The end of the season can not come soon enough.
The final road game of the season is tomorrow morning. It’ll be Jack Perkins making the start for the Athletics in that one. He’ll be opposed by fellow right Gavin Williams. Can we wrap the series with a win and avoid the sweep?
