A’s: Orioles clobber Smith and Oakland with 4 homers
For the second game in a row, Oakland’s starting pitcher had trouble keeping the ball in the park, not a real savvy approach.
The power-happy Orioles belted four homers off Chris Smith, back in the rotation after a week-and-a-half absence, to punctuate a 7-2 victory Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series at the Coliseum. At 50-65, the A’s are back to a season-low 15 games below .500, and their record through 115 games is their worst since the 1997 club went 44-71.
On Wednesday, Jharel Cotton allowed the Mariners three homers. Smith’s accounted for fewer runs, though, because all four were solo shots, two sets of blasts on consecutive pitches. Adam Jones and Trey Mancini went deep on back-to-back pitches in the fourth, Mancini and Mark Trumbo in the sixth.
“I left those balls up and they hit them out — four solo shots in the blink of an eye it looked like,” Smith said. “Too much to overcome. That lineup is deadly ... and they just kept attacking. They made adjustments on my mistakes and they hit them hard and far.”
Nine of Baltimore’s 10 hits went for extra bases. Mancini, a rookie, has 20 homers. “Guy can hit,” Smith said, adding of Mancini, who hit two homers off him, “probably the best hitter on the planet. I knew he had a big leg kick and I tried to offset the timing, I tried to quick-pitch him, he hit it. I tried to go fastball away, he hit it. That guy is on fire right now and I ran in there with a gas can on my back.”
Smith, who had not made a big-league start before this season, had not allowed more than one homer in any of his previous five outings, including one in relief. He allowed five runs Thursday, a season high. A’s starters have allowed four runs or more in 11 of the past 13 games, putting up an ERA of 7.14. As a whole, Oakland’s pitching staff has given up at least six runs in seven of nine games in August.
Liam Hendriks took the mound in the seventh and gave up two runs, both unearned, on Jones’ two-out double down the left-field line after Marcus Semien’s throwing error on a grounder by Jonathan Schoop.
The A’s have made eight errors in their past six games and have 96 overall, the most in the majors — and one short of Oakland’s total for all of 2016. The errors have led to 72 unearned runs, the team’s most since 82 in 2011.
“Confidence-wise, we started to get a little bit better and now we’re making some silly errors at times,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Because of where we’ve been with it, it doesn’t feel too terribly good, but they’ll continue to work and hopefully we get past this little period here.”
Oakland’s only run off lefthander Wade Miley came right out of the chute. Rajai Davis singled, stole second and went to third on the subsequent throwing error by Mancini, the first baseman. Davis scored on a sacrifice fly by Jed Lowrie.
The A’s made Miley throw 26 pitches in the first inning, but they got only two more hits off him over his final six innings. Oakland didn’t add another run until Miley departed, with Lowrie doubling off Darren O’Day to send in Semien in the eighth.
Lowrie’s 35 doubles lead the league and are tied with Washington’s Daniel Murphy for most in the majors.
Oakland threatened in the ninth, with runners at second and third with one out. Pinchhitter Matt Joyce struck out, but Semien walked. Closer Zach Britton came in the game to face Lowrie. Britton got Lowrie to line out to right, converting his 59th consecutive save opportunity, an ongoing league record.
Rookie third baseman Matt Chapman left after three innings because of an illness. Melvin said that Chapman was vomiting before and during the game, but still didn’t want to come out. Melvin believes there’s a chance Chapman will be able to play Friday.