Athletics maintain hot pace despite struggling to get rotation healthy.
Injuries force Oakland to improvise with a cast of retreads
An overlooked and often forgotten pitcher from the 2017 World Series champion Astros stared out at the Minute Maid Park field from the visitor’s dugout before Tuesday’s game.
Dressed in Oakland’s dark green, Mike Fiers searched for the words to explain what went wrong.
When it had looked like injuries to the starting rotation would scuttle the Astros last May, Fiers buoyed the team with his 2.51 ERA for 12 starts — long enough for the Astros to restore health and build an insurmountable lead in the standings — before he foundered with a 9.07 ERA in nine more starts and sank from the postseason roster. He became a stowaway on the post-Hurricane Harvey championship journey, kept to watching it from the sideline.
“It is what it is,” he said. “It’s kinda tough to talk about that.”
When the Astros chose not to re-sign Fiers in the offseason, Detroit signed him to be a durable veteran in its rebuilding year. But Fiers overachieved and earned a trade to Oakland three weeks ago — in time to try to propel his new team past his old one in the American League West.
“They feel like I wasn’t able to help them this year,” Fiers said of the Astros. “So now I’m on another team that intends to beat them.”
Fiers, 33, is the latest unexpected ballast to keep the Athletics rotation afloat. Arm injuries in spring training to Jharel Cotton and A.J. Puk had forced the team to bring Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill — two 30-year-old former A’s who have pitched like their old selves. Edwin Jackson, 34, might be the most impressive of the comebackers. Five days after the Washington Nationals released him in June, Jackson signed with the A’s and has been their best starter.
Anderson, who the A’s placed on the 10-day disabled list with a strained left forearm after he lasted 22⁄3 innings in Monday’s 11-4 loss to the Astros, has pitched adequately. Entering Tuesday, the remaining three veteran starters were 15-8 with a 3.01 ERA for Oakland this season. Combined they have played for 24 teams and boast 32 years of experience in the majors.
For all the attention the A’s offense has gotten for scoring the most runs after the seventh inning (237) and a bullpen that has protected every lead in the eighth inning or later (a 56-0 record), a starting rotation pulled off the scrapheap has played an equal part in posting baseball’s best record (45-17) since June 16.
Jackson (4-3, 3.03 ERA) is pitching for his 13th team in his 16th season. He received no decision Tuesday against the Astros after yielding three runs in 42⁄3 innings.
“He’s become a mainstay for us that we feel great about when he takes the mound,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve created a lot of depth to where it’s given an opportunity to guys that are a little farther in their careers. You’re seeing most team’s create a lot of depth in the rotation because you know you’re going to have some injuries. That’s happened to us.”
The A’s lost ace Sean Manaea, who threw a no-hitter in April, to rotator cuff tendinitis that could cost him the season.
“It’s kind of weird,” said Cahill, who is scheduled to start the series finale Wednesday. “Me, Edwin and Brett were all unemployed. I was wondering why none of us could get jobs and an opportunity.”
Anderson and Cahill had been part of a longer-than-expected offseason free-agency freeze that panicked players in need of last chances. Anderson, a southpaw, caught the A’s attention on a whim — he spotted team executive Billy Beane on an exercise bike at a Phoenix health club and asked for an opportunity.
Then the A’s, needing a spark as much as Cahill did, came calling. Anderson, Jackson and Fiers have similar profiles as former castoffs given leading roles in the playoff hunt.
“We’ve all had crazy careers,” Cahill said. “To be in this position and able to help a team make a playoff push at this stage of our careers —from where we were a couple months ago — is kinda special. We’re just enjoying it.”
Fiers, who is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA in four starts for Oakland, shares the same thoughts.
“I haven’t experienced a playoff start,” he said. “Everyone’s dream is to pitch in the World Series. I fell like I contributed to get to the playoffs, but I didn’t get the opportunity to pitch in the playoffs.”
Fiers is grateful the A’s chose him for their run at the playoffs, and he has not forgotten how the Astros left him out of theirs.