A’s extend win streak with home run power
After putting away Seattle 6-2 in the opener of a nine-game homestand Friday night, the A’s haven’t lost in a week and a half.
Daniel Mengden’s four-inning outing only seemed to last that long.
The A’s have won their past seven completed games — their game at Detroit on Sunday was suspended with Oakland up 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh — since a 4-3 loss at Seattle on May 14.
Last Saturday, Mengden got the win as he limited the Tigers to a run on three hits in seven innings. He threw 95 pitches.
On Friday, the right-hander with the handlebar mustache needed 99 pitches to navigate four painfully slow, trafficfilled innings.
Mengden walked five and allowed five hits, but somehow held the Mariners to a lone run.
Seattle lefty Wade LeBlanc (2-2) faced the minimum through three innings, but he left the fourth down by three runs.
He walked Marcus Semien to open the fourth. With two outs, Stephen Piscotty singled before Matt Olson unloaded on LeBlanc. Olson’s fifth homer of the season was a soaring drive to right-center that put Oakland in front 3-1.
Mark Canha followed Olson by taking LeBlanc deep to left. That’s three straight games with a home run for Canha, who has eight this year.
Mengden had slogged through a 35-pitch first inning but Seattle managed a mere run.
Domingo Santana provided the RBI
with a two-out single to rightcenter to bring home Daniel Vogelbach from second base.
Following Santana’s hit, Mengden asked for the grounds crew to do some work on the mound. After the maintenance, Mengden walked J.P. Crawford to load the bases, but Mengden escaped by getting Tim Beckham on a pop-up to Semien.
The A’s shortstop helped Mengden get through the third without allowing a run. With runners at first and second and one out, Beckham drilled a grounder on which Semien dived to his right and made a backhanded stab. Semien then threw a onehopper to third baseman Matt Chapman, whose deft grab completed the forceout.
Mengden proceeded to walk Shed Long to load the bases again, but Mengden froze Mallex Smith with a breaking ball for strike three to end the threat.
Liam Hendriks replaced Mengden to begin the fifth. Hendriks got Smith to ground out to end the inning, stranding two more runners. The Mariners left 11 men aboard in the first five innings.
Beckham’s RBI double with two outs in the seventh cut the Mariners’ deficit to 4-2. Lou Trivino relieved Yusmeiro Petit and struck out Long to end the inning.
Trivino (2-0) also worked a three-up, three-down eighth and he was credited with the win.
The A’s got an unearned run in the bottom of the inning. Piscotty’s sixth homer of the season, a solo shot to left in the eighth, accounted for the game’s final run.
In the ninth, the Mariners loaded the bases against Blake Treinen with two outs before Long’s soft liner to Olson at first ended the night — Seattle finished with 15 men left on base.
Oakland lost its first four games against the Mariners this year: two to open the season in Tokyo and two in Seattle. The A’s have had losing records against Seattle in each of the past six seasons.
Before the game, a reporter referenced the old Bill Parcells quote — “You are what your record says you are” — and asked A’s manager Bob Melvin if it felt like the A’s (25-25 at that point) were a .500 team.
“Well, because we had a lead (in the seventh inning) in one of the games,” he said, “we’re like .500—plus twothirds.”
Melvin’s was tongue-incheekily referencing the A’s game in Detroit on Sunday.
He then addressed the .500 issue with seriousness.
“We’re feeling better about how we play,” Melvin said. “At the end of the day, we probably deserve to be where we are right now, which is .500, and now we try to improve upon that.”