Anderson struggles in return from injury as A’s fall to Orioles
BALTIMORE (TNS) – Brett Anderson and Matt Chapman looked at each other in disbelief as the ball from Cedric Mullins’ swinging bunt danced its way along the right side of the left field foul line and remained fair to lead off the bottom of the first. It was almost like an omen of what was to come.
Making his first start back from the disabled list, Anderson was off his game as he lasted just 31/3 innings in Thursday’s 5-3 loss to the Orioles, pushing the A’s to 1½ games back of the New York Yankees for the top American League wild-card spot with 15 remaining.
Though his first two hits allowed could be considered somewhat cheap, with Jonathan Villar following up Mullins’ swinging bunt with an actual bunt two batters later, the Orioles had no issues making contact against Anderson.
Four of Anderson’s seven hits allowed went right back up the middle. After back-to-back RBI singles with one out in the fourth stretched Baltimore’s lead to four runs, A’s manager Bob Melvin cut Anderson’s night short at 59 pitches.
It was Anderson’s second consecutive start in which he’s failed to go past the fourth after getting roughed up Aug. 27 in a loss at Houston before landing on the DL with a forearm issue the next day.
Anderson took solace in the fact that he felt fully healthy and command of his off-speed pitches, something he said was missing in that previous start in Houston. Though he did admit to feeling a bit rusty in his first outing back.
“Today was about as frustrating as it can get,” Anderson said. “Every ground ball seemed to find a hole and weak contact was too soft to get an out. Small victory my body felt good and stuff felt good, but that first batter of the bottom of the first was kind of a microcosm of the outing. The guy couldn’t roll one any closer to the foul line than he did.”
Making things even more disappointing for Anderson, who is now 3-5 on the year with a 4.35 ERA in 14 starts, was the fact that all seven hits he allowed were singles.
The A’s offense slowly tried to claw back from the early deficit.
Stephen Piscotty got the A’s on the board after clubbing a solo home run off Orioles starter Dylan Bundy in The Oakland A’s Brett Anderson delivers a pitch during Thursday’s 5-3 loss to the Orioles in Baltimore. the second, his 24th of the season to extend his careerhigh hit streak to 14 games.
The eighth inning was where the A’s missed out on a great chance. Though a run scored after Matt Olson drew a walk with the bases loaded and only one out to cut the deficit to a run, Piscotty struck out and Marcus Semien flied out to strand the bases.
The A’s finished leaving eight runners on base and went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. But given the team’s offensive firepower, entering the night fifth in the majors in runs scored, Melvin isn’t too concerned with one bad night of situational hitting.
“We give ourselves opportunities a lot and typically we do come through,” Melvin said. “It was another game where we had a chance in an inning that has been big for us and we just didn’t come through. We felt good about our chances with Stephen up there. We keep doing that, we’re gonna come through.”