Manaea, offense are in tune in San Diego
SAN DIEGO — Elements of a baseball team can work out of step. The past month for the A’s has illustrated it. Their offense has struggled to back some pitching gems. In other games, opposing lineups erased their early leads. In a 104 win Wednesday, the A’s operated in enviable harmony.
Sean Manaea did not allow a baserunner until the last of his six scoreless innings facing a lively San Diego lineup. Oakland produced its largest scoring output in more than a month. A day that began with the A’s swinging a highprofile trade continued with their snapping a fourgame skid.
Manaea received four runs of support total in a fourstart losing streak from June 20 to July 7. He held a fourrun lead before throwing a pitch Wednesday. A sixthinning walk and flare single by Eric Hosmer were the lone blemishes on his line.
“It just goes to show that he’s the kind of guy that, no matter what team he’s facing, when he goes out there, he can dominate,” A’s third baseman Matt Chapman said of Manaea.
Manaea struck out nine and just 10 of his 90 pitches were put into play — those averaged a paltry 76.2 mph off the bat. In his past 12 starts, Manaea has a 2.08 ERA, and opponents are hitting .203. His 3.01 ERA this season is fourth lowest among qualified AL starters.
“I’m just trying to be consistent,” Manaea said. “Just every time I go out there gaining a little more confidence in my stuff and just going out there and trying to throw up zeroes.”
With reinforcement coming to the A’s offense — outfielder Starling Marte, acquired Wednesday from Miami for lefthander Jesús Luzardo, is expected to join the lineup Thursday in Anaheim — a group that was averaging the secondfewest runs in the majors this month stirred on its own.
The A’s led 40 after one inning and 70 after four. Lefthander Blake Snell issued three firstinning walks. A Jed Lowrie sacrifice fly scored one run. Chapman, who awoke Wednesday with a .181 average and one RBI for July, then drove a high 95 mph fastball for a threerun homer.
Chapman said the A’s clubhouse vibe was “really good” after news of the Marte addition. The A’s did not rest on a fourrun inning. Elvis Andrus singled and scored on a single by Mark Canha in the second. Chapman, Stephen Piscotty, Andrus and Canha all singled in a tworun fourth. Snell lasted four innings. The A’s added three runs in a seventh that included two San Diego errors.
“For us to go up and put a lot of runs on and just keep putting consistent pressure on them, it feels good,” Chapman said. “I think it gives our team confidence, and now we’ve got another guy coming to our lineup who’s hitting .300, somebody that brings stuff to the table that we don’t have on our team at this moment. So to add another piece like that just gives us confidence.”
Manaea struck out seven of his first 11 batters. He threw mostly fastballs and changeups. He fired a 95 mph fastball past Fernando Tatis Jr. for a strikeout in the first inning and struck out Tatis waving at a changeup in the fourth. Manaea finished four of his strikeouts with fastballs, three with changeups and two with curveballs.
Jake Cronenworth’s flyout in the fifth was the Padres’ first ball hit out of the infield. Manaea issued a fivepitch walk to Jurickson Profar with one out in the sixth, giving San Diego its first baserunner. Hosmer hit a bloop to center that evaded Andrus, angling back from shortstop.
Austin Nola’s RBI double off A’s reliever J.B. Wendelken in the seventh scrapped ideas of a shutout. Reliever Andrew Chafin, in his A’s debut, inherited a twoon, oneout jam in the ninth; he finished the game after a single and wild pitch scored the runners.
Manager Bob Melvin said Manaea “is the guy that seems like is into the fifth or sixth inning all the time and it’s 11 or 10. I don’t think he worries too much about it . ... But it’s always nice to get a fourspot and go out there with a lead one time where not every pitch seems as paramount.”