Strikeouts piling up
CLEVELAND — Another day, many, many more Ks.
Oakland continued to struggle to put the ball in play Thursday, striking out 10 times in six innings against Cleveland starter Corey Kluber, just off the DL after missing a month with a lower back strain.
The A’s got only one runner past first against Kluber; Rajai Davis reached on an infield hit in the third, stole second and went to third on a groundout, but after Matt Joyce walked,
Mark Canha struck out to end the inning, one of his four K’s on the day.
“It’s the first time I’ve faced him and I don’t know if I went in with the right approach,” Canha said of Kluber. “Anything I tried today, I couldn’t really figure out against him . ... I wasn’t seeing the ball very well.” Ryon Healy and Khris Davis each struck out three times. Oakland set a franchise record for strikeouts in April, with 221, and a franchise record for strikeouts in May, with 255, and the A’s opened June with 17 more Thursday. Manager
Bob Melvin said that was partly his fault — he didn’t have a lot of lefthanded hitters in the lineup against Kluber, with Jed Lowrie and
Stephen Vogt getting the day off.
The A’s whiffed 93 times on the trip, setting a franchise record for most strikeouts in a sev- en-game span. The previous mark: 83.
“I think we’re having a lot of the adversity we’re going to see early in the year and it will get better from here,” Canha said after Oakland’s three-error, 17-K day. “It’s easy when you aren’t playing well to try a little extra hard. Sometimes it works and sometimes it hits the fan, like it did today. You have to keep trying and keep your mind right, stay positive.”
Hahn update: Jesse
Hahn (triceps strain) threw 75 pitches in his rehab outing Wednesday at Class A Stockton, meaning he could be back with the A’s next week. “We haven’t had that conversation yet,” Melvin said.
If Hahn returns to the rotation early next week, that could allow the rest of Oakland’s starters an extra day of rest. Daniel
Mengden is the likely candidate to come out of the rotation.