Lefty Manaea is lone bright spot as bats slumber
LOS ANGELES — Even when matching his total of earned runs from the previous two games, Sean Manaea is still very good, but for an A’s team that brought its bats along just for show, the lefthander’s solid outing wasn’t enough.
Manaea gave up two solo homers Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, and though that was all the scoring off him, Oakland’s offense appeared to be stuck in a post-Ohtani funk in a 4-0 loss to Los Angeles. On Sunday, the A’s didn’t get a hit off Angels starter Shohei Ohtani until the seventh inning, making the two-way player the talk of baseball. After a day off Monday, Oakland was
still in a feeble state at the plate.
“We had to make a real quick adjustment there, but we got burned real quick his first two hitters,” catcher Jonathan Lucroy said of the bang-bang homers off Manaea to lead off the game. “We couldn’t really do anything offensively, so tough night . ... We faced two starters back-to-back who threw pretty well. Hopefully, the guy tomorrow won’t be as sharp.”
Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu didn’t allow a hit until Stephen Piscotty’s two-out single in the fifth, and the A’s did not put a man in scoring position against him. Oakland finished with five hits and two walks and was shut out for the first time this season.
“He didn’t make hardly any mistakes,” Lucroy said of Ryu. “Maybe one, everything else either down or up or something soft in a fastball count.”
The A’s didn’t get a man past first until the eighth, when Piscotty walked and, with two outs, went to third on Marcus Semien’s ground-rule double. Had the ball not bounced over the fence in left, Piscotty would have scored from first, and he did race all the way around and back into the dugout before being re-positioned on third. There he remained when Matt Chapman flied out.
“We’re not squaring too many balls up right now,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Now, Ohtani pitched really well but we had some decent at-bats earlier in the games in Anaheim. Today, a lot of back-door cutters, lot of changeups, off-count stuff that kept us off balance. I don’t see a trend. Now, we have another tough customer tomorrow (Alex Wood) but we do have to come out and put a little pressure on the starting pitcher.”
Manaea has been the one real positive in Oakland’s rotation after allowing only one run in each of his first two outings. On Tuesday, he gave up homers to the first two batters he faced, Chris Taylor and Corey Seager. Making his first-ever appearance against the Dodgers, Manaea allowed seven hits, walked one and struck out five in five innings. His ERA through three starts is 1.74.
“Other than the first two batters, he did well,” Melvin said. “You’re thinking he’s a little bit on the ropes after the first two hitters. Other than those first two guys, he started locating a lot better.”
Manaea got one at-bat Tuesday and grounded out to second. He’s 0-for-6 with three strikeouts lifetime.
Matt Kemp added the Dodgers’ third solo homer, hitting a fastball from Liam Hendriks to right-center. Cody Bellinger followed with a base hit and Logan Forsythe doubled him in, with Khris Davis — in left at a National League park — struggling with the throw to the cutoff man.
Davis had two of Oakland’s hits, ending an 0-for-12 streak. “We’re not swinging great at the moment but good to see K.D. get a couple of hits there,” Melvin said. “We really need him to get hot. But they pitched us pretty well, too.”
Oakland, which plays a twogame set in L.A., has failed to win any of its first four series for the first time since 2001.
L.A. has won 10 consecutive interleague home games.