Ugly inning on defense caps losing trip
CLEVELAND — If an inning or even just one play can explain a season, the A’s experienced it Thursday during one ugly mess of a sixth.
Oakland’s chronically bad defense was at its worst, and the Indians capitalized at every turn in an 8-0 victory over the A’s. Unsurprisingly, Oakland finished a road trip with yet another dismal record, going 2-5 at New York and Cleveland to fall to 8-20 away from the Coliseum.
“Just some weird stuff happening and we kind of let it snowball,” catcher Josh Phegley said. “You look up and I think it was 4-0 and it felt like 25-0. It shouldn’t feel that way. We have a team that can battle back — we can’t let stuff like that take us out of the game. Play after play, things start happening.”
Manager Bob Melvin had a meeting with his players afterward. “I just told them, ‘Sometimes we try too hard,’ ” Melvin said. “I think at times as a group, things get contagious, whether it’s strikeouts or the errors, and then you start thinking about what you don’t want to happen instead of what you want to happen, and guys get a little tight.”
The sixth inning opened with No. 9 hitter Erik Gonzalez singling to center, and then Jason Kipnis walked. Francisco Lindor reached when third baseman Ryon Healy couldn’t come up with his sacrifice bunt. Jharel Cotton — so good in his previous start against the Yankees — walked Michael Brantley to force in one run. “I’ve got to be better than that, make some pitches,” Cotton said.
The next batter, Carlos Santana, lofted what looked like a catchable pop fly to shallow left, but Mark Canha couldn’t reach it, and another run scored. Melvin said that it was a ball an infielder usually would have and that shortstop Adam Rosales lost it in the sun.
Jose Ramirez bounced into a force at the plate, and then Bradley Zimmer hit a grounder to second, erasing Brantley at the plate. Phegley threw to first, but Zimmer beat the throw and was called safe, but first baseman Yonder Alonso momentarily thought Zimmer was out. Meanwhile, Santana broke for the plate, and Alonso belatedly threw home. Initially, Santana was ruled out, which would have ended the inning.
“He got way down there before we knew we needed to make that play and I was a little out of position,” Phegley said. “I thought he beat it out but then when we got the call, I thought it bailed us out of the whole ordeal.”
The Indians challenged the call, and Melvin challenged the safe call at first. As per usual, both decisions went against the A’s — in fact, three replays in all went the other way Thursday. They’re 2-8 on their own challenges, 6-10 on opponents’ challenges.
So Santana’s run counted and the inning continued in its messy fashion, with Healy making another error on a grounder by Daniel Robertson, letting Ramirez score. So, what next? The sprinklers came on in the outfield, causing a brief delay.
The next inning, the A’s made another error — Canha let a ball go through his legs — and the Indians scored two more runs on the play.
“The first ball hit to me (in the sixth), I sat back too much and wasn’t aggressive and the next one, I tried to be aggressive and the ball goes to the right of my glove,” Canha said. “Just not our day.”
Even the Indians’ first run, in the third, was thanks to A’s mistakes. Robertson doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. Cotton gave up five runs in his 52⁄3 innings — but only one was earned. “He had one inning, I think he had six outs,” Melvin said.
The A’s have made 55 errors this season, 15 more than any other team, and the 40 unearned runs they have allowed lead the majors. They allowed 43 unearned runs all of last year.
“I keep telling myself it’s still early, we’re going to come together and go on a big run,” Cotton said. “This is a good team, we’re talented, we’re working hard. It’s going to come together.”