Lowrie breaks A’s out of slump
Two-out, two-run double in seventh snaps losing skid
OAKLAND >> One swing of the bat from Jed Lowrie did more than just give the A’s the lead. It released the frustration built up by A’s hitters over the past three games.
In each game of their recent three-game losing streak, the A’s were unable to come through in clutch situations late in the game that could have either tied it up or given them the lead.
Lowrie snapped the streak and changed that narrative in Monday’s 3-1 victory over the
Texas Rangers in front of a sparse crowd of just 7,416 fans at the Coliseum.
Lowrie smashed a twoout, two-run double off Jake Diekman that brought home Jonathan Lucroy and Marcus Semien in the seventh inning. It put the A’s ahead 3-1 and gave them the hit that had been eluding them over the past few games.
Diekman had kept the A’s scoreless in his previous 14 outings against the A’s, making the breakthrough inning all the more impressive to manager Bob Melvin.
“Diekman’s a guy that been really tough on us over the years,” Melvin said. “It just seems like the ball was not bouncing our way in a number of different instances where we could have gone ahead. You start to grind a little harder when it looks like you should have a lead and you don’t. That was a huge hit.”
Lowrie, who set an A’s record last year for most doubles in a season with 49, was pleased to reward the pitching staff with the clutch hit.
“Diekman’s stuff is sharp. It’s got a lot of sink for a guy that throws that hard. He made a mistake and I made him pay for it,” Lowrie said. “Pitchers did a great job tonight and we got a big hit when we needed it.”
Making life difficult for A’s hitters through the first six innings was an old friend in Bartolo Colon.
The former A’s pitcher continued to perform like an ageless wonder. Colon, 44, managed to allow just one run on seven hits over six innings of work.
Melvin praised Colon for
his ability to reinvent himself in order to last so long. Colon enters his 21st season in the big leagues.
“He’s a marvel,” Melvin said before the game. “He continues to do what he’s always done, maybe at a little lower velocity now and mixing his pitches up a little more than he has in the past. It’s not 90 percent heaters now, maybe more like 75. But it’s worked for him for quite a while and it seems like it’s continuing to.”
Matt Chapman took Colon deep in the third inning with a solo shot that sailed over the right field wall to give the A’s an early 1-0 lead. It was his second home run of the season and second in as many games.
After a slow start at the plate this spring as he recovered from a hand issue, Chapman is now batting .333 through the first five games of the season.
“It’s good see him get off to a good start like that,” Melvin said. “Made another couple of great plays today on defense. He saves runs over there and knocks in runs again today. The power is showing up as we’d expect.”
Blake Treinen recorded the last five outs of the game to earn his first save of the season.
The bullpen as a whole continued its impressive early start to the season as Ryan Buchter, Chris Hatcher and Treinen combined to turn in four scoreless innings in relief of starter Andrew Triggs. Hatcher earned the win, having done so in both of Oakland’s victories this season.
Triggs put together a solid performance over five innings of work, allowing just one run on four hits with seven strikeouts on the night as he reached 88 pitches.
It was an outing that reminded Melvin of the type of pitcher Triggs looked like early on last season when he allowed one earned run or less in six of his first eight starts.
“Very few good swings at him. That’s kind of what we saw last year, especially at the beginning,” Melvin said. “He threw a lot of pitches, but he got us through five. I thought he threw the ball well.”
• Trevor Cahill, who signed with the A’s two weeks ago as a free agent, was scheduled to throw a simulated game down at Triple-A Nasville Friday.
The A’s plan to get him two starts down there on April 7 and 12. It is possible he could be called up to Oakland and inserted into the starting rotation shortly after.