Chapman goes on DL; skid hits 4
Friday wasn’t the best for the A’s. They turned in a mess of a performance in losing 8-4 to the Angels at the Coliseum, and after the game manager Bob Melvin said that third baseman Matt Chapman will go on the DL with right hand soreness.
An MRI showed no structural damage, but Chapman also dealt with the issue last September and during spring training. He had a cortisone shot in February, but there are limits to how often cortisone can be used. Chapman will visit Dr. Stephen Shin at the KerlanJobe clinic in Los Angeles.
The A’s will recall infielder Franklin Barreto from Triple-A Nashville, and Jed Lowrie might see some time at third in order to get Barreto into some games at second, Melvin said. Chad Pinder, who made one of Oakland’s two errors Friday, also will play third.
Oakland also is likely to add a reliever on Saturday, with right-hander Carlos Ramirez on his way out after giving up two runs in Friday’s loss.
It was Oakland’s fourth loss in a row, a season high, and the A’s have been outscored 34-15 in that span.
Oakland made two errors on grounders by Albert Pujols, contributing to four of the Angels’ early runs off Chris Bassitt, who was making his second fill-in start while Trevor Cahill is out with an Achilles tendon strain.
Bassitt made one of the errors, a wild throw past first that allowed two runs to score in the first. Bassitt said he didn’t get a good grip on the ball after barehanding it “and it just sailed. Obviously, I wish I had that back, because it started that snowball and it just kept going.”
Pinder, who’s played only
four games at third, made the other in the third, bouncing a throw past second base on a potential double-play ball.
Bassitt gave up seven hits and six runs, two earned (one on a homer by Ian Kinsler), in four innings. He’s lost eight consecutive games, a career high.
“Just didn’t seem as crisp. He threw a lot of pitches in four innings,” Melvin said. “They did foul some pitches off, but it means you’re not as in command of where you’re throwing the baseball.”
Ramirez allowed two more runs in the fifth, walking in one of them. Mike Trout had three hits and scored twice for the Angels.
Oakland scored twice in the fifth against lefty Tyler Skaggs, but both were unearned because of an error by shortstop Nolan Fontana. Josh Phegley doubled in one run with two outs and Marcus Semien followed suit. The A’s scored single runs in the eighth and ninth on wild pitches.
“The early part of the game was about as bad as we’ve played,” Melvin said. “Kept grinding and came back, which is good to see. You don’t want to just continue to play a bad game like that.”
Lowrie, who entered the game with one hit in his previous 24 at-bats, had a three-hit night.