Sports: A’s swept by Astros to start season.
Astros complete four-game sweep of opening series
Here is an early reaction, maybe an overreaction, to the A’s winless start to the season so far: The Houston Astros look more than ready to reclaim the American League West division title from the A’s this year.
Granted, the first four games of the season don’t even begin to tell the whole story. But this opening series did not paint the prettiest picture for the A’s, who suffered their first four-game sweep at the Astros’ hands since June 2017. Culminating in a 9-2 loss on Easter Sunday at the Coliseum, this was just the second four-game series sweep loss to Houston in franchise history. The A’s
are still looking for their first win.
“We don’t feel good about it. A little bit embarrassing,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We played really poorly and they played great.
“In perspective, we have to look at it as four games in 162. We have to play with more urgency. We have to play better. We got another tough team coming in and then we go there. We have to turn things around. It’s not just going to happen for us. We have to play better baseball and this was not good baseball for us.”
Panic buttons don’t exist until the season’s second half, but an 0-4 start should be a shove to get this team playing with urgency. Too much is at stake given the talent on the roster.
This 2021 A’s team is no A’s 2017 team. This roster has been restocked and revitalized to not only contend for the postseason for a fourthstraight year, but make a deep run that’s eluded the franchise for decades. Oakland isn’t off to the best start against a division rival also jockeying for a deep postseason run, and they’re not out of the clouds yet as the defending world champion Los Angeles Dodgers visit the Coliseum for three games next and then tne A’s travel to Houston for three more.
This is the first time the A’s have lost more than three straight to start the season since they went 0-5 in 1987. It’s the first time the A’s have been on the receiving end of a four-game sweep since July 2017 against the Blue Jays in Toronto. This team is too good to revert.
That’s the scope of a disappointing start to this full season for the A’s, rife with higher expectations. What’s going wrong, exactly? The A’s aren’t executing on any front. Houston outscored the A’s 35-9 in the series and never relinquished a lead.
“Pretty much the whole series, we had trouble getting them out and that was across the board,” Melvin said. “We’re all involved in this four game loss. Everybody. Myself, coaching staff, players. It was a hard series for everybody.”
Sean Manaea had the start Sunday and pitched well. Though he couldn’t throw his breaking ball for strikes much, it was falling out of the zone enough to get some swings and misses. He threw his fastball and sinker primarily. The Astros may thrive off mistakes, but they don’t need an opposing pitcher to make one. The Astros collected five runs off Manaea.
Kyle Tucker’s first-inning homer came on a decent sinker. Jason Castro didn’t get all of a pitch, but hit it 101 mph off the bat for an opposite field two-run home run. Jose Altuve knocked a two-strike slider at his feet for a double that charged a threerun rally in the third.
Manaea struck out four batters and walked three through 4 2/3 innings while throwing 101 pitches. Houston wore him down, just like they did every other A’s starter.
Through the first four games, the A’s starters have a 7.65 ERA. And the bullpen hasn’t fared any better, allowing 17 runs through 16 innings combined.
And the onus isn’t just on the pitching staff. The A’s offense wasn’t able to keep step with the Astros mighty offense in any capacity. A five-run effort on Friday was the only bright spot for the A’s hitters this series. They managed to score two runs on Sunday, and a heating-up Mark Canha was the centerpiece for both runs.
Canha doubled and scored on Jed Lowrie’s double in the first inning. He doubled, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Matt Olson’s out into the shift.
The A’s have said they just need to run into a “big hit” -- a hit that unchains the offense and relieves the pressure off key players to produce. Right now, the A’s hitters look pressed. Matt Chapman collected his first hit of the season -- a bloop single on Sunday -- to make him 1-for-11 to start the season with four walks. So far, Olson and Lowrie have been the most productive at the plate. Olson is 4-for14 -- he went 0-for-4 on Sunday -- and Lowrie is 3-for-11.
It’s safe to say nothing is clicking for the A’s right now. On the flip side, let’s look back to the 2020 season, where the A’s dominated the regular season series 7-3. The Astros turned the advantage around and pummeled the A’s with a 3-1 series victory in the ALDS.
“Last year we swept them the first series we played them,” Melvin said. “As the season went along they got better and beat us in the end. We can’t look at these four games as the team we are. We’re a much better team than that.”
Luckily, they have 158 games left. This is a team that’s trying to shake the trend of getting off to sluggish starts to the season _ they’ve started slow in each of their last contending years and been fueled by mid-summer flashes. It may be embarrassing for the A’s, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. PINDER EXITS EARLY >> A’s right fielder Chad Pinder left the game after the first inning after landing awkwardly as he made a difficult catch at the wall to rob Jose Altuve of a hit. Pinder sprained his left knee and will have an MRI today.