The A’s couldn’t finish off the sweep of the Chicago Cubs on Thursday night. They imploded late, blowing a three-run lead in the ninth to ruin the chance at leaving Chicago with three wins.. A strong start from their young starting pitcher paired with four home runs wasn’t enough to overcome a bullpen collapse at the worst possible time. With the Mariners’ off day the club drops to two and a half-game back in the standings in the AL West. Tough one to swallow.
Ginn dominates (again)
Taking the mound
for his 11th start of the season, right-hander J.T. Ginn took to the hill and on his fourth pitch of the game plunked the Cubs’ leadoff man. Not a great start but all Ginn did was strike out the next three batters to strand the runner. He’d allow a one-out single in the second but from there went on a roll. Starting by wiping out that runner with a double play, Ginn proceeded to sit down 11 straight batters, going three up, three down in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.
His first real mistake came with one out in the bottom of the sixth when he left a hanging slider in Pete Crow-Armstrong’s wheel house. The lefty swinger lined it over the right field wall for Chicago’s first run of the game, and just their second hit of the evening. Ginn would finish the inning but staked to a lead and approaching 100 pitches, manager Mark Kotsay decided that his day was done after six full frames.
- J.T. Ginn: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 HR, 1BB, 8 K, 88 pitches
The righty just continues to pitch lights out and doesn’t look like he’ll be slowing down anytime soon. He lowered his season ERA to 2.74 and at this point could be putting himself in All-Star talks. He’s currently lined up to face the Brewers next week at home in Sacramento next week.
A’s offense late but fashionable
On the other side of things, Cubs starter Shota Imanaga was going toe-to-toe with his younger counterpart in the early going. Though he was entering this game on a major skid, Imanaga looked like his April self as he dominated the A’s the first time through the lineup, only allowing one hit but then immediately getting a double play ground ball.
The fourth started with more of the same with two more strikeouts. Then Shea Langeliers stepped to the plate and got a hold of one of Imanaga’s pitches, sending it the other way over the ivy-covered wall in right for a solo home run:
That was #15 for the potential All-Star and it also gave the A’s the first lead of the day. We’d be hearing more from him later as well.
The sixth inning brought more runs for the A’s, all sparked by an Alika Williams one-out walk. Leadoff man Henry Bolte swatted a double into the left-center gap to bring home Williams…
…before it was Langeliers again, this time doing something no one in the stadium or watching on TV saw coming:
Hey, we’ll take it. That’s why you always run it out. #16. At this point it would be a major upset if anyone other than Shea is the starting catcher in this year’s Midsummer Classic. Come on. Look at those wheels! That doubled the Athletics’ lead to 4-0 and with just a few innings to go it seemed like this game was about to go on cruise control.
A’s add on
With Imanaga still in the game in the seventh, the A’s batters were seeing him for the third time tonight. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom took advantage and got in on the home run barrage, swatting his eighth of the year to lead off the frame:
And Chicago decided to keep him in. And just two pitches later, it was Jonah Heim’s turn to get in on the fun:
That was Heim’s third of the year and that solo shot busted this game open to 6-1. That one also finally knocked Imanaga out of this game and the A’s were into the Chicago bullpen, not that they managed to do anything against them during the last few innings.
Final frames
The A’s were also into their bullpen with Ginn out of the game. Righty Scott Barlow was first out of the ‘pen tonight and was greeted with a double and home run that cut into the A’s lead in the blink of an eye. He proceeded to get the next three outs no problem but all of the sudden this game wasn’t as much of a sure thing as thought. A three-run lead can disappear quickly.
Next it was Mark Leiter Jr. and he had a much less exciting 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth. With a three-run lead Kotsay went with Joel Kuhnel for the save. Two doubles brought in the Cubs’ fourth run of the evening and brought the tying run to the plate with just one out. Not good. A mound visit didn’t seem to help as another hit put runners at the corners.
The A’s were now barely hanging on and needed a big play and they got that. With the runner at first trying to steal second catcher Jonah Heim fired a rocket to the keystone and nabbed the runner for the second out. Two down. But the next batter dribbled an infield hit that Williams booted which brought home the fifth Chicago run, and the next batter collected the Cubs’ fifth hit of the frame and put the winning run on first base. Time for a pitching change and Kotsay put it in Luis Medina’s hands to finish things off. With little room for error now Medina allowed an RBI single to blow the save, and another walked it off for the Cubs. All four runs in the ninth were charged to Kuhnel.
This one stings. Ginn was dominant during his six innings of work, allowing just two hits and a walk. Can’t ask for much better than that out of your young starter. The bats woke up for four home runs, two coming off the bat of Langeliers. The bullpen, however, ruined all of that. No sweep, no .500, and no fun trip to the next city. Not much to say other than try to forget this one and prepare for the next series.
The squad will get on a plane immediately and land in Houston tonight to get ready for a weekend series against the Astros. This’ll be the team’s second face-to-face with the ‘Stros, who sit in fourth place in the AL West at 28-35. It’ll be right-hander Jack Perkins getting the ball for his first start this season. He’s been hit hard in a relief role in recent outings but the coaching staff must know something we don’t. Perk will be opposed in the series opener by Astros righty Peter Lambert. After four years with the Colorado Rockies the 29-year-old is taking his opportunity with Houston and running with it. Through eight starts he’s been a godsend for the Astros as he has a 3.77 ERA to help stabilize a depleted rotation. First pitch is set for 5:10, see you all there!
