A’s beef up rotation at relatively small risk and cost, then lose to Milwaukee 4-2 at Coliseum.
This much we know: A’s gonna A.
The Oakland Athletics, true to their nature, beefed up their pitching staff at the trade deadline Wednesday, putting themselves in position to continue to compete down the stretch for a wildcard spot.
Adding arms, it’s what the A’s do. That and sending carloads of pitchers to surgeons and doctors, and enduring the odd suspension (Frankie Montas).
Before the trading bell rang Wednesday afternoon, the A’s had added two plugin starting pitchers and a hardthrowing setup man.
Seven hours after the Oakland front office presented the team with a new toy, the A’s stumbled against the Brewers, losing 42 at the Coliseum.
But despite falling a halfgame behind Tampa Bay for the second wildcard spot, the A’s seem to have positioned themselves for a legitimate run at the postseason, using a formula that worked well last season: Shore up the staff with pretty good arms, a lot of them, and let nature take her course.
The A’s booty from the trade market: Roark, a righthanded starter, on Wednesday (from the Reds), lefty setup man Jake Diekman (obtained Saturday from the Royals), and righty starter Homer Bailey (obtained July 14 from the Royals).
The acquisitions came at relatively small risk and low cost to the A’s. They are renting Roark for the rest of the season for a mere $1.2 million, or $550,000 per month, about what you’d pay to rent a nice Bay Area apartment.
The A’s, who had won their previous three games by one run each, fell behind early when Brett Anderson gave up a homer to Lorenzo Cain on the second pitch of the game
The Brewers added runs in the third and fourth off Anderson, on an RBI double by Christian Yelich in the third and a runscoring groundout by Mike Moustakas in the fourth.
The A’s got one run in the third on Matt Chapman’s sacrifice fly, and picked up another in the seventh on pinch hitter Jurickson Profar’s RBI double.
Milwaukee extended the lead in the eighth when Lou Trivino’s wild pitch let in Ben Gamel from third.
But back to the big picture: How did the A’s do in the lastminute wheelinganddealing department? A survey of the experts and pundits shows that the A’s did well. They didn’t knock any socks off, but probably did a bit better than was expected. Billy Beane and David Forst did enough to show the ballclub that the front office believes.
“Tanner Roark was a tough get for us,” manager Bob Melvin said, “so hats off ” to Beane and Forst.
No manager has ever bashed his front office at the trade deadline, but Melvin seemed sincere in appreciating what has been placed before him, clay for him to mold into a staff with which to pursue postseason glory.
Melvin is no stranger to mixing, matching and pluggingin of pitchers. A strong element of the A’s team personality last season and this has been wild and unpredictable turnover of the pitching staff, because of injuries and wild performance swings.
Also an A’s trademark: pitchers coming in trades and performing at or above expectations. See: Mike Fiers, obtained in a trade one year ago, effective down the stretch, resigned in the offseason, and solid this season.
There might be something about the A’s that inspires newcomers. It could be the team’s lowrent spunk and grit, the underpaid gang that overachieves because it believes. Corny stuff, but if it’s genuine, it works.
The new fellows will be asked to step in immediately and contribute to a pitching staff with an everchanging cast of characters, like a Greyhound bus terminal.
If Sean Manaea looks good on his current rehab assignment in TripleA right now, the A’s rotation might soon look something like this: Fiers, Anderson, Roark, Manaea and Bailey.
Also likely to join the fun eventually: Jesus Luzardo, A.J. Puk and Jharel Cotton, who are in various stages and phases of recovery from injuries/operations. All are starters, but could be plugged into bullpen roles, depending.