The A’s established a three-game winning streak on the road today with a win over the Pirates. as Lawrence Butler and Nick Kurtz provided just enough offense to overcome an early deficit, while A’s pitching held the Pirates scoreless through eight innings after a tough first frame. The A’s victory came in spite of being outhit 10-4 by the Bucs. Unfortunately, second baseman Zack Gelof suffered a season-ending injury to put a damper on any celebratory mood.
Fans were treated to a special father-son
moment before the game began, as former Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson threw a ceremonial first pitch to his son, A’s All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson. The auspicious occasion did not aid J Willy at the plate: he went 0-for-4 in the game, losing more ground to Aaron Judge in his quest for a batting title.
Starting pitcher Luis Severino may have thought he was pitching at the A’s home field in West Sacramento, as evidenced by the early hole he dug for his team in the first inning. Sevy tends to fare better on the road, but he got off to a rough start in Pittsburgh as the Pirates plundered the green and gold for three runs in the first. Only a single earned run was charged to the lefty, since the inning was prolonged by a throwing error by third baseman Darrel Hernaiz that allowed leadoff hitter Jared Triolo to reach first.
Then came the Pirates’ hit parade: first baseman Spencer Horwitz, right fielder Bryan Reynolds, and designated hitter Andrew McCutchen strung together three successive hits, scoring Triolo and Horwitz in the process before the A’s finally recorded the first out of the inning. Shortstop Nick Gonzalez brought home Reynolds with a sacrifice fly before the A’s finally got out of the frame.
Meanwhile, Pirates lefty Mitch Keller was mowing down hitters with ease. The first 11 A’s batters were retired in order. Severino settled down and worked through some traffic to maintain the A’s three-run deficit, but run support was slow in arriving.
However, the tide began to turn in the fourth as A’s first baseman Kurtz got the first hit of the day off Keller—and the first run—with another of his characteristic mammoth shots. Big Amish now leads all A’s with 33 home runs on the season.
The Law Dog continued his fall renaissance at the plate, providing what would be the winning shot in the fifth, a three-run homer that brought right fielder Carlos Cortes and Gelof home along with Butler.
The remainder of the game played out fairly quietly—with the exception of the injury to Gelof in the bottom of the fifth. This kid is just getting none of the breaks—Gelof left the game in “serious pain” per Martin Gallegos at MLB.com and it was later revealed that Zack dislocated his shoulder. Hopefully he will recover well and manage at last to get back into the swing of things next spring.
Severino managed to grind through five innings, qualifying him for the win. He allowed seven hits in total, with three strikeouts and one base on balls issued. Elvis Alvarado, Brady Basso, Justin Sterner, and Michael Kelly all contributed a single scoreless inning out of the bullpen to allow the A’s to hold on for the win. Things got precarious in the ninth, as Kelly yielded a double to substitute first baseman Rafael Flores leading off the inning, and after walking McCutchen faced a jam with baserunners on the corners and just one out. But substitute left fielder Tommy Pham hit into a double play to sink the Pirates’ rally and hand the A’s a victory in this first of a three-game series.
The A’s will look to win their fourth straight tomorrow, clinch the Pittsburgh series, and hang on to their long shot at finishing at .500, which will necessitate winning out and finishing the season with 11 straight wins. Luis Morales is scheduled to start on the mound for the A’s, but mum’s the word on who the Bucs will trot to the mound—their ace Paul Skenes pitched in Chicago on Tuesday, so hopefully the A’s will dodge that bullet.
