Magic subsides for Blackburn, A’s
Rookie has hit rough patch; Oakland’s comeback attempt stifled by Royals
OAKLAND >> A’s rookie Paul Blackburn finally appears to be hitting a wall.
The Brentwood native turned in the shortest outing of his career, lasting only four innings in Wednesday’s 7-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals in front of 15,239 fans in a matinee at the Coliseum.
Turning in impressive starts in his first seven outings that caught the eye of manager Bob Melvin and the rest of the organization after beginning his big league career in July, Blackburn is now going through a rough patch. His previous start featured a career-worst 10 hits allowed. While it was not quite that bad Wednesday, Blackburn allowed four runs for the second consecutive start on eight hits. He reached nearly 80 pitches in the first three innings alone.
“It’s tough. I fell behind almost every batter so it’s kind of on me,” Blackburn said. “I have to be better than that. It’s not ideal for our offense to get in a flow of things.”
Blackburn failed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time all season..
As a low-strikeout pitcher who prides himself on pitching to contact and inducing ground balls, it was disappointing for Blackburn to have to create a rare long day for his bullpen with him as the starter.
“My biggest thing is going deep into a game and putting the team in the best situation to win and I didn’t do that today,” he said.
The A’s briefly took the lead in the third after Marcus Semien smashed a tworun homer into the left field bleachers, but the next halfinning was where things began to unravel for Blackburn.
After allowing the tying run to score on a lined single that bounced off the glove of Semien, Blackburn was left once again trying to limit the damage. Blackburn faced similar trouble in the first and third innings and was able to pitch his way out of bases-loaded jams both times, combining to only allow a run. He wasn’t so lucky the third time around.
Lorenzo Cain crushed a 3-1 pitch left over the plate to straight-away center for a two-run home run that put the Royals ahead 4-2.
Despite Blackburn’s underwhelming performance, it almost looked like the A’s were going to pull off another late-inning comeback.
After rookie Matt Chapman blasted a game-tying two-run homer off Brandon Maurer in the eighth, the A’s threatened to take the lead. Pinch-hitter Bruce Maxwell and Rajai Davis followed up the homer with back-to-back singles and Davis stole second to put runners on second and third with two outs. Unlike the night before, Maurer halted any potential late-inning magic by getting Semien to ground out and prevent further damage.
“It is a results-based industry,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You want to win but the fact that they kept battling in what was, early on, not a really good game for us does have a little bit of value.”
Blake Treinen came on in the ninth and was unable to preserve the tie. After allowing a leadoff double to Alcides Escobar, Treinen surrendered the go-ahead run on a single by Alex Gordon.
Melvin had hoped to give the reliever the day off after Treinen threw 33 pitches the night before, but the manager said the situation forced the pitcher to enter the game.
“I really didn’t want to use him unless it was that situation or hopefully a save,” Melvin said. “He said he was good for one inning and once we got into a tie game, that’s our closer.”
Treinen’s struggles capped off what was a subpar outing from most of the A’s bullpen, which was not as sharp as it had been in recent days. Simon Castro allowed a run in the fifth, and Ryan Dull gave up another in the eighth on a single by Eric Hosmer.
While the A’s battled back to even the score late, once again showing their grit, Melvin saw too much sloppiness this time around.
“It just was an ugly game all the way around,” Melvin said. “There was no pace to the game and it just seemed like one of those games that were just ‘blah.’ ”
The A’s rallied for two runs in the bottom half of the fifth with a two-run single by Jed Lowrie that cut the deficit to 5-4.
• Chris Hatcher made his first A’s relief appearance to begin the sixth inning. The 32-year-old righthander retired the heart of the Royals lineup in order, striking out the power-hitting Hosmer.
“He looks like he has a nice delivery with a slider and a split,” Melvin said. “He’s had some success in big situations before for pretty high-profile teams. For what’s gone on with our bullpen and losing some guys, it’s nice to have some depth and a guy that’s got experience.”
• The A’s made another bullpen move Wednesday by acquiring Colorado Rockies left-handed minor leaguer Sam Moll in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Zach Neal was designated for assignment in order to make room for Moll, who was optioned to Triple-A Nashville on the 40-man roster.
A former third-round draft pick by the Rockies in 2013, Moll appeared in 44 games as a reliever at Triple-A and went 3-2 with a 4.18 ERA.
With Daniel Coulombe currently the only lefthanded pitcher in the A’s bullpen, Melvin said there’s a good chance Moll will pitch with the big league club before season’s end.
“I don’t know much about him at all but I do know we need some lefthanders,” Melvin said. “We don’t really have too many left-handers in our system and Daniel (Coulombe) being the only one here, it’s nice to get another lefty and my guess is we’re going to see him here at some point.”