Early overturned call opens the floodgates
ANAHEIM — A day that started with old business from the weekend series in Kansas City being eradicated ended with a debacle of a 14- 1 loss for the A’s against the Angels, but first baseman Ike Davis somehow made it all a little worthwhile.
Davis, a pitcher in college at Arizona State in 2007 and the son of former big league reliever Ron Davis, volunteered to pitch the eighth inning to save wear and tear on the Oakland bullpen.
He needed just nine pitches to get three ground ball outs. And a postgame that could have trended toward the glum side was instead enlivened by pitchers and hitters both gathering around the video replay area in the clubhouse to break down just what kind of game Davis brings when he steps on the mound.
“I’d pitched in college; I knew I could probably throw strikes,” Davis said. “I threw harder in college, but it was fun. And it’s
not fair to put one of our pitchers out there in a game like that.”
The game got to be “like that” early on. The Angels scored four times after an inning- ending double play was wiped out in the second inning, and that led to a four- run inning that spelled doom for Oakland.
Manager Bob Melvin said things changed after the double play was taken off the books, setting up a Johnny Giavotella threerun homer. But A’s starter Drew Pomeranz wasn’t as sure.
“You could tell from the replay the call was going to get reversed,” he said. “It was a close play, but that’s baseball.”
When Pomeranz gave up a leadoff double in the sixth, he was done. Rookie reliever R. J. Alvarez had pitched well enough in his first five games, but his sixth was a disaster, including five hits, two errors made behind him, two wild pitches thrown by him and a season- high six runs for the Angels.
With Dan Otero having thrown four innings Monday and with Jesse Chavez having been targeted to start Thursday in place of Jesse Hahn, the A’s bullpen was already thin. Melvin needed two innings from Alvarez, and on Wednesday he may need two innings again. So it seems likely Alvarez will be sent to the minor leagues, with Chris Bassitt likely to be called up.
Seven hours before the game started, the A’s got word that Major League Baseball had fined Yordano Ventura an undisclosed amount of money and suspended fellow Royals pitcher Kelvin Herrera for five games for their parts in throwing at A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie over the weekend.
Ventura hit Lawrie in the elbow Saturday while Herrera, also throwing a fastball, threw behind Lawrie and high enough that it was considered “in the head area” by MLB.
In saying that the suspension of Herrera wasn’t up to him, Lawrie said he believed the reliever got what he deserved. And he said he expects no carryover in the late June series when the Royals visit Oakland.
“They’ll be watched closely,” Lawrie said. “If it happens again, the penalty will be 10 times what it was this time.”
Some of Lawrie’s teammates took a harder line.
“It’s not my call, but if someone truly threatens someone else, then the suspension should be more than five games,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “I think what he got was a little light.”
Right fielder Josh Reddick said “7- 10 games would make more sense.”
Lefty starter Sean Nolin, n picked up in the Josh Donaldson trade with Toronto this off- season, will start his 20- day injury rehabilitation assignment with Triple- A Nashville Thursday. Nolin is coming back from an off- season sports hernia surgery and should pitch three innings after starter Barry Zito comes out of the game that day.
Billy Butler made his n 15th consecutive start as the A’s DH Tuesday. Over the last five seasons, no one had been the starter at DH more than 14 in a row, that being Hideki Matsui in April of 2011. He singled in his first at bat and homered in his second and has hit safely in 14 of his 15 games. The homer was the first by an A’s hitter off a left- handed pitcher in 341 at- bats dating back to Sept. 7 last season.
Switch- pitcher Pat n Venditte, who was a hit this spring, has 10 scoreless innings to his credit at Nashville, and no one knows that more than Melvin, who is keeping an eye open. “When I talked to him, I said you’ve put yourself in the best position you’ve ever been in to break into Major League Baseball.”