A’s continue to slide into the abyss with loss
OAKLAND » It’s been 50 years since the Athletics won their first World Series in Oakland. The time it takes to win another one may have to be measured in light years.
That’s how bad things looked Saturday as the A’s lost 8-0 to the Boston Red Sox on a day when the 1972 World Series championship team was honored. While the Red Sox had little difficulty putting all manner of contact safely in fair territory, the A’s saw what little solid contact they made fall safely into Boston gloves.
The A’s (20-35) have now lost five games in a row (their second-longest losing streak of the season), eight of the last 10 and are 3-19 on their last three homestands.
“We haven’t had a lot of losses like this,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’ve gotten the tying run, winning run to the plate late in the game. Unfortunately, the game just got away from us. This wasn’t pretty, doesn’t feel good and it’s one we’ve got to move on from.”
The Red Sox, who lead the American League in extra-base hits, had 14 hits, including five doubles. They’ve out-hit the A’s 24-10 in two games with a home run and 10 doubles.
Nick Pivetta (5-4) was the winning pitcher for Boston, with Paul Blackburn (5-2) taking the loss. Pivetta gave up just two hits in seven innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. The lone hits against Pivetta were doubles by Elvis Andrus and Ramon Laureano.
“The kid Pivetta had a good breaking ball, one of the best curveballs we’ve seen in a while,” Kotsay said. “Mixed his pitches, got ahead of hitters. On the flip side, Paul fell behind early and that’s what led to his troubles. Was up in the zone more than normal and the result wasn’t great.”
After throwing 100 pitches, 63 for strikes, Pivetta gave way to Tanner Houck in the eighth and Hirokazu Sawamura in the ninth.
The Athletics, who had just four hits, have scored eight runs in their last five games.
It hasn’t helped matters that the A’s have run into two hot teams, being swept in three games by Houston and with Boston winning the first two heading into today’s series finale.
The Red Sox are just 2627 but are 6-1-1 in their last eight series after opening the season going 1-7-2 in series play.
Blackburn departed with no outs in the fifth inning after giving up singles to Jarren Duran and Enrique Hernandez.