Rangers 8, A’s 4: Short night for rookie starter Gossett as he seeks to impress going into 2018.
ARLINGTON, Texas — With the A’s looking more to next year as the 2017 season dwindles down, every starting pitching performance, good or bad, could impact decisions the team makes this winter.
Oakland will have a lot of question marks in the rotation next spring, and while some pitchers helped themselves enormously this month — such as Daniel Mengden, who will get the ball for the season finale against the Rangers on Sunday — others haven’t left quite as strong an impression.
Count Saturday starter Daniel Gossett in the latter group. Gossett didn’t even make it out of the second inning in Oakland’s 8-4 loss Saturday, allowing four runs that inning including a two-run homer by Joey Gallo. Gallo added a monster shot off Simon Castro in the third, a solo homer into the second deck in right, his 41st of the season.
Homers hurt Gossett (4-11) much of his rookie season, but most especially down the stretch — he gave up seven in his final three starts, covering just 102⁄3 innings. Overall, he allowed 21 in 911⁄3 innings, and his 2.07 homers per nine innings are the most in A’s history after Gil Heredia’s 2.22 homers per nine innings in 2001.
“I think he’s a little tired at this point,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Younger guys in September, it’s a month they haven’t played before. He’s out there grinding but hung a few breaking balls, didn’t really have command of his fastball.”
“I just wasn’t able to slow the game down enough and make my pitches. That’s the bottom line,” Gossett said. “I lost track of the plan.”
With Paul Blackburn back healthy next spring, plus Andrew Triggs coming back from hip surgery, Oakland will have a number of rotation options, and there is a chance the team might add a veteran starter. Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea and Blackburn are all shoo-ins for the rotation, but after that, all bets are off. Jharel Cotton’s got a strong shot, but his erratic results and 5.58 ERA don’t guarantee anything. Gossett finished with a 6.11 ERA and the last young A’s starter with big home-runs allowed totals, Dillon Overton, didn’t last long with the organization.
“We talked about this with a few guys: It’s going to be the consistency that’s going to set them apart and enable them to stay,” Melvin said.
Gossett said he learned this season that he has to trust his stuff and not get too much into his own head, and he’ll come into the spring ready. “I had a couple of good starts but the bad starts outweighed the good starts,” he said. “I still have something to prove and I need to come in with that attitude. A chip on my shoulder couldn’t hurt.”
Cotton, who missed the final two starts of his rookie season with a slight groin pull, threw a bullpen session Saturday and Melvin said it went well.
Oakland had some chances early on Saturday but hit into inning-ending double plays in the second and third. Khris Davis doubled in the A’s first run off Andrew Cashner in the sixth and Matt Chapman added an RBI groundout.
Matt Joyce strained his left hamstring chasing down a flyball in the seventh, but stayed in and belted his 25th homer in the eighth before coming out; Melvin said he won’t play Sunday. Marcus Semien added a solo shot, his 10th homer, with two outs in the ninth.
Oakland went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.