Oakland caught in a perfect game bid
Giolito dazzles, Luzardo struggles as A’s suffer 6th straight postseason loss
Luzardo struggles as A’s flirt with being on wrong side of perfect game, suffer 6th straight playoff loss.
OAKLAND >> Not since New York Yankees’ Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series has a perfect game been thrown in the postseason. The Oakland A’s flirted with being on the unfortunate end of the rare feat in Game 1 of their AL wild-card series against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.
Lucas Giolito took a perfect game against the A’s into the seventh inning, broken up with leadoff hitter Tommy La Stella’s single up the middle. Oakland went on to lose 4-1 at the Coliseum.
A perfect game wasn’t out of
the realm of possibility. Giolito has emerged as one of the game’s most dominant right-handers; he has a no-hitter already on his resume this season against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Aug. 25.
Oakland had no answers for Giolito’s changeup, mixed to perfection with a biting slider and mid- 90s fastball. Solid contact
seemed to elude Oakland throughout, with hard-hit balls all finding White Sox gloves.
The A’s finally rid themselves of Giolito in the eighth inning when Mark Canha drew a leadoff walk and Jake Lamb — who had two hard hits in his previous at-bats — knocked a single into right field to put runners on the corners with no outs. Ramón Laureano hit into a fielder’s choice to score Canha for the A’s only run.
A shadow continues to follow the A’s in the postseason. Oakland extended its playoff losing streak to six games, tying a record the organization set between Oct. 10, 2006, and Oct. 7, 2012.
This loss had some eerie parallels to four of those six previous losses. It featured a starter unable to pitch deep into the game and an early deficit that the offense looked ill- equipped to hurdle.
Jesús Luzardo showed the White Sox his electric stuff that’s earned him national recognition, but with catcher Sean Murphy he fell into the traps a young battery might slip into. Lu
zardo allowed two home runs, both on egregious fastball mistake pitches over the plate.
Luzardo was rolling at first, after settling in he was staying ahead in most counts. He got Adam Engel into an 0-2 count. He served up a 97 mph fastball that Murphy wanted a little higher up in the zone that fell middle-middle — and Engel launched it over the left-field wall for a solo blast.
Against José Abreu a second time, Luzardo fell behind in the count 2- 0 and served up a 96 mph fastball right over the plate. Abreu, an AL MVP candidate, smashed it into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer.
Leadoff hitter Tim Anderson had been on base after collecting his second hit off Luzardo. Engel’s double off the wall in the fourth inning spelled the end of his first career postseason start (second appearance).
There were silver linings for the A’s left-handed rookie, a day shy of his 23rd birthday. He struck out five, throwing a stupefying changeup and his new slider.
A quick recap of the A’s starters in the last three wild card games:
• Luzardo: 3 1/3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 HR
• Sean Manaea against Tampa Bay Rays in 2019, 2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 HR
• Liam Hendricks against New York Yankees in 2018, 1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 1 HR
The White Sox went 14-0 against left-handed starters. Anderson said the A’s clearly “didn’t do their homework” when selecting left-handed Luzardo as their starter. Luzardo is no ordinary lefty, but the White Sox sluggers are no ordinary right-handed hitters.
The A’s bullpen continued its dominant work to, in theory, keep the A’s in contention. J.B. Wendelken, back from a mysterious injury that had him on the IL, worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings. Yusmeiro Petit threw a shutout inning with one strikeout.
Joakim Soria allowed a Yasmani Grandal home run in the eighth inning. At that point, more runs for the visiting team hit a numb spot. The A’s offensive juices didn’t flow until the eighth inning — it was too late.
Unlike their last three postseason losses, the A’s will get another try. They’ll have right-handed starter Chris Bassitt on the mound Wednesday afternoon. But it doesn’t get any easier for the listless offense, who will have to face left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who has a 1.99 ERA this year.