Bailey too much for Giants.
RIVALS ARE ALL EVEN WHEN THEY MEET NEXT WEEK IN OAKLAND
A’s: Chapman continues hot streak at plate, Bailey stymies Giants once again
SAN FRANCISCO >> Matt Chapman’s mom has gotten used to the army sergeant buzzcut, but the look alarmed the third baseman’s Postmates delivery guy the other day.
“I kinda snuck up behind him like, ‘Matt?’ and he was like, ‘Whoa!’ Chapman said. “I’ve never had people freak out over a haircut like this before.”
All this attention paid to one haircut might be spent elsewhere if the haircut-to-offensive-production correlation didn’t fit so seamlessly. Since Chad Pinder took clippers to his locks in Chicago, Chapman has put together a .313 average with three home runs.
Two of those home runs came Wednesday afternoon. His first-inning homer off Tyler Beede and ninth
inning one off Trevor Gott sandwiched the A’s wild 9-5 win over the Giants at Oracle Park, splitting the two-game bout that kicked off the Bay Bridge Series, which will conclude at the Coliseum on Aug. 24 and 25.
Do fewer hairs on his head alleviate some pressures at the plate?
“I don’t know, maybe,” Chapman said. “Helmet feels a little better on my head.”
He’ll knock on wood when reminded, but Chapman has a five-game hitting streak with a bald head. Surely this is a coincidence (right?), but the A’s star was sure to break out of his strange lull. His world is tilting back to its normal state.
Chapman is still extending through fastballs away — like on that 3-2 fastball Beede served up that left Chapman’s bat at 106 mph and travelled 411 feet into the center-field bleachers.
But now he’s making healthier contact on breaking balls. Instead of getting on top of Gott’s twostrike curveball, Chapman barrelled it 434 feet into left-center. It was a crucial swing that seemed to take the wheels off the Giants’ attempt to close the A’s early 7-0 lead.
Chapman was thinking small, but went big naturally.
“I didn’t expect to go up there and hit two home runs after I’d been struggling for a little bit,” he said. “You just want to go up there and get good atbats and get some hits.”
Substantial steps out of a slump are worth celebrating until your starting pitcher begins stringing hits together in his third and fourth at-bats of the season.
“He was up there making it look easy and I was getting jealous,” Chapman laughed.
That’s right, Homer Bailey had two hits, includ- ing a 3-foot RBI single. It fit the type of afternoon the A’s new acquisition was having. In his sixth start for Oakland, Bailey tossed seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits (both to Kevin Pillar) with seven strikeouts.
The performance lowered his 8.17 ERA with the A’s down to a more digest- able 6.46. But his home and away splits are more telling.
Prior to Wednesday’s start, Bailey’s road ERA with Oakland ballooned to 20.57 — that includes two starts against the Astros and Cubs in which he allowed 16 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings total. His home ERA simmers down to a 3.31.
Oracle Park maybe didn’t have that tough road team feel to it, maybe the park sits in some gray area on this scale rendering Bailey’s effectiveness. He’s had tremendous success against the Giants in particular. Since his no-hitter with the Cincinnati Reds back in 2012, Bailey is 5-0 with a 1.21 ERA against San Francisco.
Bailey, fresh off a clunker in Chicago, was working his splitter in the strike zone — just like the A’s had hoped when they acquired him.
“From what we’ve seen, when his split is on he’s a tough customer to deal with,” manager Bob Melvin said.
• The A’s added another veteran to their rotation options, signing former New York Mets All-Star Matt Harvey, according to multiple reports.
Harvey, 30, will be assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas. The right-hander was released on July 21 by the Angles after going 3-5 with a 7.09 ERA in 12 starts.