Defensive lapses add up in loss to Yankees
Two errors, including dropped fly by Joyce, lead to five unearned runs as Oakland goes 1-2 in New York
NEW YORK — The wreck that is the A’s defense smacked the team hard again Sunday in a 9-5 loss to the Yankees.
No one got smacked harder than right fielder Matt Joyce, who dropped a semi-routine fly ball in the third inning. The result was four unearned runs when New York’s Aaron Judge crushed a grand slam later in the inning.
“It hit the glove and I dropped it, and obviously that’s pretty tough for me to swallow,” Joyce said. “That’s an easy play. It’s a little embarrassing and obviously really frustrating.”
The error was one of two on Sunday that led to five unearned runs off A’s starter Andrew Triggs. Oakland has committed 49 errors in 49 games, totaling 35 unearned runs.
Both the error total and the unearned runs are the most in the major leagues. No other team has allowed as many as 30 unearned
runs or has committed as many as 40 errors. The A’s were going to be hardpressed to compete in the American League West with a decent defense. With the defense they have now, they’re 22-27.
“If we make some plays, it’s probably a different story,” Melvin said. “And that’s been an Achilles’ heel for us all year.
“As I’ve said often, there’s a psychology to it, too. You feel like you have a chance to battle and come back and score some runs, and then when your defense is poor, sometimes it’s difficult mentally to overcome that and get past it. You’ve got to keep working on it. It’s another game where if we tighten it up on defense, at least it’s a different game.”
Triggs allowed six runs. Five were unearned, and you can make a case that all of those runs could have been denied the Yankees with better defense. That’s a matter for stat geeks, however, because all the runs counted and led to the A’s losing the series and falling to 1-7 in series played on the road.
“It was one of those days where we needed to have focus on our defense and minimize mistakes,” left fielder Khris Davis said. “That’s kind of been hurting us. We need to concentrate harder on defense, especially me.”
Davis hit a two-run homer that got the A’s within 7-5 in the eighth inning as Oakland tried to rally. That was as close as the score would get.
“We had our chances and our opportunities. We just didn’t capitalize,” he said.
Triggs could have let the defense take its lumps. Instead he tried to take all the blame on himself.
“I’ve got to make better pitches,” Triggs said. “My fastball command early on was atrocious. It’s obviously accentuated with that home run to Judge, but I was missing quite a bit with my fastball. That can’t happen. Early on, that was on me.”
How does he go about keeping the errors from messing with his head?
“It doesn’t cross your mind,” he said. “You go by the number of outs you need to get. And I’ve got to make much, much better pitches in those situations.”
The A’s rotation is n getting another makeover with Kendall Graveman going on the disabled list and Daniel Mengden, who has spent most of the season on the DL, being promoted from Triple-A Nashville to start Monday’s game in Cleveland. It will be the first big league start this season for Mengden, who was a candidate for the starting rotation before spring training before needing foot surgery.
There is concern n about Graveman’s shoulder. This is the second time he’s heading to the DL with the shoulder continuing to cause him pain. There is some thought that he came back too early when he was disabled from April 15-26, missing 10 games. “He’s taking some meds now, and it’s still sore,” Melvin said. “He’s been through this once before. So we are going to let this thing calm down before he even starts strengthening again. It’s probably going to be a little bit longer than last time.”
Sean Doolittle threw n 20 pitches to live hitters Saturday in Arizona in the A’s extended spring training camp. “We will figure out the next step in the next day or two,” Melvin said.
Yonder Alonso was n in the starting lineup Sunday. He was hit on the right wrist by a pitch Tuesday and had not played since. He doubled and scored the A’s second run in the second inning.
Khris Davis has 15 n homers this season, and 57 homers since the start of the 2016 season, the most in the Major Leagues. He has at least one RBI in seven of his last nine games.
The A’s have homered n at least once in nine consecutive games and in 19 of their last 20. But with four hits total, the other side of the coin is that the A’s have been held to six or fewer hits in 19 of their 49 games.