Long ball torches starter Smith
Oakland right-hander gives up four home runs in loss to Baltimore
OAKLAND» Chris Smith became the latest A’s pitcher to get bit by the home run bug.
The 36-year- old righthander entered the night having allowed only five round-trippers in 24 innings this season. He surrendered four in just six innings of work in Thursday’s 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Smith allowed back-toback home runs on consecutive pitches to Adam Jones and Trey Mancini in the fourth. The same exact sequence occurred in the sixth as Smith allowed another home run to Mancini and Mark Trumbo to dig the A’s in a 5-1 hole. At that point It was the seventh home run the A’s staff had allowed in its last 15 innings pitched.
“Four solo shots in the blink of an eye and it was too much to overcome,” Smith said. “That lineup is deadly. There’s a lot of righthanders in there and they just kept on attacking. They made the adjustment on my mistakes and they hit them hard and far.”
Among the league leaders in home runs with 167 total, the Orioles now have four hitters in their lineup with 20 or more home runs.
Mancini became one of those 20-homer sluggers with his two on the night. The rookie went 3 for 4 on the night and became just the seventh rookie in Baltimore’s history to hit 20 or more home runs in a season.
“The guy can hit. Probably the best hitter on the planet,” Smith said with a grin. “I tried to quick pitch him and he hit it. I tried to go fastball away and he hit it. That guy is on fire right now and I just ran in there with a gas can on my back.”
After becoming the oldest player to make his first major-league start on July 8, Smith still continues to search for that elusive first win as a starter. That achievement may become even more difficult to obtain if Smith is moved back to a long relief role in the bullpen with the A’s expected to call up their younger starting pitchers from the minor leagues in the final months of the season.
A’s manager Bob Melvin thought Smith threw the ball better than the stat line indicated. Out of the seven hits allowed by Smith through six innings, all of them were extra-base hits.
“It was just the homers. Other than that, he had guys off balance,” Melvin said. “Every mistake he made they made him pay for it. That’s what they do when they’re swinging the bat well.”
Rajai Davis manufactured the A’s first run of the night on his own in the first inning. After leading off with a single, Davis stole second and advanced to third after the throw was mishandled by Tim Beckham. Davis eventually came in to the score 1-1 on a sacrifice fly by Jed Lowrie.
Davis continues to turn it on in the second half as he is coming off a month of July in which he batted .317. After struggling as primarily a bench player who started against righties early on in the season, Melvin believes Davis is settling in nicely to his new role this season.
“It was tough for him to get on a roll for a guy that’s used to consistent at-bats and I think now he’s acclimated and understands the role and can prepare for it,” Melvin said. “Now you’re seeing what Raj can do. In the last month or so he’s done really well and he’s the one guy that really knows how to lead off and impact a game with his legs, so it’s nice to have him playing well.”
Lowrie added another run in the eighth on a double down the right field line that brought home Marcus Semien, but the A’s still found themselves facing a five-run deficit.
Marcus Semien committed an error in the seventh on an errant throw to Matt Olson. It was the club’s 96th error through 115 games this year. The A’s committed a total of 97 all last season.
“It seemed like we were playing a lot better on defense and confidence-wise we started to get a little better and now we’re making silly errors at times,” Melvin said. “It doesn’t feel too terribly good but they continue to work and hopefully we get past this little period here.”
• Matt Chapman left the game just before the start of the fourth inning after feeling ill. Chapman had felt sick before the game and only got worse as the night went on.
“He was throwing up and then once he started doing it during the game now you have dehydration issues that you have to deal with so we got him out,” Melvin said. “My guess is I hope he’s fine (for Friday). He didn’t want to come out of the game as you would expect.”
• Josh Phegley is on track to return quicker than most do from his oblique injury.
Normally requiring at least a month for such an injury, Phegley is already taking swings in the cage and is expected to participate in pre-game batting practice on the field at some point over the weekend.