Things are not going well for the Athletics. Hours after firing their long-time General Manager David Forst, the A’s dropped their ninth straight game on Friday night in Boston, getting blown out by the Red Sox 13-1 which also extended Boston’s winning streak to nine games. Let’s not let either streak hit double digits tomorrow.
It was right-hander Jack Perkins on the bump for the road team tonight trying to play stopper for his skidding squad. Perkins had a rough first half all around but came into
the second half looking a bit sharper, though he did get touched up in his most recent start. Still, it was only a week ago that Perk pitched nearly six full innings against this same Red Sox club while allowing just a pair of runs. That was the guy the A’s were looking for tonight.
That guy did not show up. After a quiet bottom of the first Boston was all over the right-hander, tagging him for five runs in the second after allowing a walk, homer, and three doubles. Perkins went out for one more inning and only allowed one hit in the third but that was it. His day was done after three innings and 70 pitches.
- Jack Perkins: 3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR, 70 pitches
Not an encouraging start from the right-hander, who has now allowed 11 runs over his past two starts. The A’s don’t have much in the way of rotation depth so Perkins is (unfortunately) likely safe for another turn through the rotation. He’s currently lined up to face the Tampa Bay Rays at home in Sacramento next week.
Meanwhile the Athletics’ bats had literally no answer for Boston starter Payton Tolle. One of the game’s premier young pitchers, Tolle was filthy early, collecting nine punchouts through the first four innings while allowing no hits or no runs. Tyler Soderstrom made sure there would not be history tonight though as the left fielder hit a leadoff solo home run in the fifth to break up the perfect game, no hitter, and shutout all in one swing. The A’s would get one more hit tonight, a Max Muncy single in the sixth. No walks either as Tolle finished with a career-high 14 strikeouts over his six innings of work.
Boston would add on four more runs in the fourth and with the way Tolle was pitching the result was all but ensured. Two more in each of the sixth and seventh turned this into a circus, to the point that outfielder Carlos Cortes was called on to pitch in the ninth. Anyway you look at it, tonight was about as bad as things get for an A’s team that can’t figure it out.
Hard to win when you only get two hits. Harder to win when you allow 13 runs. Another blowout loss and the losing streak is now at nine games. The club has just fired its GM and with this losing streak and all of the June and July stuff combined, one has to think manager Mark Kotsay’s seat is getting awfully hot. Will he survive the year, or does the new front office decide to make the inevitable change sooner rather than later?
The club will have another attempt for win #46 tomorrow night in the middle game of our weekend set in Boston. The Athletics have rookie lefty Gage Jump set to take the ball for what’ll be his 14th big league start. The 23-year-old will be looking to turn things around as he’s sporting a 7.47 ERA over his last seven appearances. He’s sandwiched a couple dud outings around a quality start so it’s anyone’s guess which Jump will show up. It’ll be a rematch between pitchers too as Boston will counter with their own lefty in Jake Bennett, who pitched into the seventh in a Red Sox win in Sacramento last week.
