The Athletics started their weekend series against the Colorado Rockies on the right foot, beating their NL West counterparts 6-4 thanks to some solid pitching and timely hitting. The win secures the team’s 34th win of the season and they remain in striking distance of a playoff spot and the AL West lead. They’re now just a game under .500 and can get back to that mark tomorrow with another win.
Zeros early
Tonight’s pitching matchup featured a pair of young starters just beginning to make their mark
on the league. It was lefty Gage Jump for the Athletics while fellow southpaw Sean Sullivan was making his major league debut for the Rockies.
Jump, one of the organization’s best young pitchers, came into this contest riding high after two quality starts in a row. He ran into some trouble in the first when he allowed back-to-back one-out singles but managed to wriggle out of it. He allowed another single in the second before getting into his rhythm.
From the third on Jump was dominant. He turned in 1-2-3 innings in the third, fourth, and fifth, retiring 10 straight at one point tonight. Considering how much the ball was flying earlier in the week during the Brewers series, Jump did a great job keeping the Rockies off the board for five full frames this evening.
On the other side Sullivan was keeping up with Jump. The A’s got a double in the second that was stranded and put two runners on in the third, but they couldn’t cash in on that early opportunity either. Those three innings were all we would see of Sullivan as the Rockies didn’t want to push their luck and ask him to go through the Athletics’ lineup a second time.
The scoring begins
Righty Jeff Criswell replaced Sullivan and had a scoreless fourth before Seth Halvorsen entered this contest for the fifth. He managed two outs before Shea Langeliers stepped up to the plate and hit the second pitch he saw over the center field wall for a solo shot:
That big fly was Langeliers’ 18th of the year and gave the Athletics the first lead of the game. But the A’s were done there. Next to the plate was first baseman Nick Kurtz and he decided to go back-to-back with Langeliers with his own home run, his 16th on the year:
The power stroke is officially here. That big fly was Kurtz’s fifth long ball in his past five games. It also doubled the A’s lead and gave Jump some breathing room.
Speaking of Jump, he finished the fifth rolling after punching out the side and was sent out to start the sixth given a chance to keep it going. But a leadoff single broke his streak. Then another single and a five-pitch walk brought Mark Kotsay out of the dugout, and the manager decided to pull his starter before things got any hairier.
- Gage Jump: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 75 pitches
No need to push the young lefty when he was clearly beginning to lose it. Right-handed Justin Sterner replaced Jump, coming into a bases-loaded, no out situation with the Rockies’ home run leader stepping to the plate. He punched out Hunter Goodman before a sac fly brought in the Rockies’ first run of the evening, charged to Jump. Then it was the big hit for the Rockies, a three-run home run to turn a 2-1 A’s lead into a 4-2 Rockies lead. Two of those runs would also be charged to Jump, putting a bad finish on an otherwise quality outing. Jump is lined up to take on the Pirates next week.
Now facing a deficit, the A’s offense needed to get to work. A leadoff walk to the just-activated Jacob Wilson started the bottom of the sixth. That was followed by a Zack Gelof one-out single (which extended his hitting streak to 16 games) to put two runners on. Up to the plate stepped third baseman Max Muncy and he delivered a huge two-run double that knotted this game back up at 4 apiece:
Much needed hit right there. Muncy would finish the night 2-for-4. This game would need to be decided in the final frames tonight.
The endgame
Following Sterner out of the Athletics’ bullpen was right-hander Mason Barnett, who had a perfect top of the seventh.
The bats meanwhile managed to push a run across in the bottom of the seventh with a little help from the Rockies’ defense. With two outs and runners on the corners Kotsay sent the runner on first, hoping to draw the throw to second base and allow the runner at third to make an attempt for home plate. Instead Butler nearly got picked off at third, but luckily a bad throw from the catcher sailed past the third baseman into left field, allowing Butler to come home and give the A’s the late lead:
Hey, take what they give you right?
Barnett came out for another inning of work in the eighth and got two outs but also allowed a double, putting the tying run in scoring position for the Rockies. Enter lefty Hogan Harris. Asked to get one major out, Harris did his job inducing a ground ball to escape the jam. Breath out.
The A’s added on a much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. Lawrence Butler, who didn’t even start this game, delivered his second hit of the night to drive in Muncy and give the A’s some breathing room for the ninth:
It was then up to Harris to finish the Rockies off. The lefty finished off the bottom part of the Colorado lineup with ease, collecting two punch outs and securing the win for the Green & Gold while earning his sixth save of the season.
A slightly stressful win but a win nonetheless. Don’t let Jump’s final line tell you he had anything but a great start tonight. The offense managed to do just enough to squeak out the win against the worst team in the league, and the bullpen was (almost) perfect to secure win #34 for the squad. They did what they needed to do tonight and now they need to do it two more times.
We do it all again tomorrow evening, same time same place. The A’s will have their second straight lefty on the mound in Jeffrey Springs, who will be looking for a bounce back performance in his 15th start of the year. The Rockies meanwhile have their own lefty in Kyle Freeland going for them in the middle contest this weekend. The 10-year veteran has gotten hit hard this season as he’ll carry a sky-high 7.81 ERA into tomorrow. More homers incoming?
