A’s drop series to Mariners with third consecutive one-run loss.
The Oakland A’s lead the American League in one-run losses. The Seattle Mariners lead the AL in one-run wins. Oakland’s fourgame series against their division rival played out accordingly.
To kick off a key three-city road trip, the A’s dropped a four-game series with three straight one-run losses, culminating in a 4-3 loss to the Mariners on Sunday in Seattle. On the backdrop of Oakland’s league-leading 18th one-run loss, an up-and-coming Mariners team celebrated an astounding 23-8 record in one-run games.
Only the last place Miami Marlins (21) and Arizona Diamondbacks (20) have more one-run losses.
In a way, the series felt like a reverse of roles. When they were the up-and-coming team, this A’s core thrived on late-game comebacks and wins on the slimmest margins of victory. Over this tough stretch that dates back to the last weeks of the season’s first half, the A’s have continually fallen on the wrong side of that margin for er
ror. They started the year 11-5 in one-run games, but are 4-13 since.
“Give them credit. Whether it’s the big play, whether it’s a hit, whether it’s a big out by the pitching staff, they were a little better than us in this series,” manager Bob Melvin said. “But there’s a lot more baseball left to be played.”
Losses in the margins are complicating the big picture. The A’s, 56-45, are now 5.5 games back of the Houston Astros for first place in the division and the Mariners are crunching the pressure, now 1.5 games back of them for a Wild Card spot. Unsurprisingly, the A’s say they don’t feel that pressure and believe they’ll eventually snap out of offensive struggles.
“It’d be good to pull off a couple of wins in these tight ones,” Matt Olson said. “We’ll get there. It’s been tough like I said. But nobody’s freaking out. We’ve got a little bit of a cushion, and we know we need to turn it around a little bit, but not panicking.”
Next they’ll play two games in San Diego against the Padres, one of the strongest offenses in baseball that just added another player, utility infielder Adam Frazier, in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. With an NL MVP frontrunner in Fernando Tatis Jr. waiting, the A’s are considering taking a dip in the Pacific ocean for a cleanse once they land in San Diego for an off-day, A’s starter Cole Irvin said.
A ROUGH START FOR COLE
IRVIN >> Consistency with his fastball command has allowed Irvin to string together a 4-1 record with a 2.54 ERA in eight starts in June and July. But Irvin’s four-inning, four-run outing on Sunday was his shortest start of the year, including his rocky April and May.
After allowing just one hit through the first 2 2/3 innings, Irvin struggled to get that final out. The Mariners put six straight runners on against him and scored four runs in a twoout rally. It started with J.P. Crawfod’s single up the middle and Irvin issuing his first and only walk to Shed Long. Then Kyle Seager singled on Irvin’s first pitch to tie the game 2-2. Back-to-back hits from Luis Torrens and Tom Murphy scored two more to give Seattle a 4-2 lead.
“Just got to execute better with two strikes really,” Irvin said. “It’s one thing giving up a hit or a couple of hits but there were a couple uncompetitive atbats that I’m looking back on that I just didn’t make a good pitch or quality pitches. It ended up costing me.” Irvin pitched a clean fourth inning, but was pulled after throwing 77 pitches.
“I thought he had had enough,” Melvin said, adding he liked the bullpen match-ups for the rest of the game. J.B. Wendelken, Sam Moll, Yusmeiro Petit and Jake Diekman combined for four scoreless innings with two hits and six strikeouts.
WHAT’S UP WITH THE OFFENSE? >> The highlights will feature plays from that tough inning for Irvin, but the spotlight should be on the A’s offense for its continued struggles.
Against Seattle lefthanded starter Marco Gonzales, Matt Olson hit his 27th home run of the year. Matt Chapman collected his fourth hit over his last 11 games and scored on Stephen Piscotty’s double. After Olson’s home run in the third inning, Gonzales retired nine straight A’s batters before a Ramón Laureano single and Sean Murphy’s 10-pitch walk in the sixth inning to force the pitcher out of the game having thrown 105 pitches. Reliever JT Chargois held both runners on.
Of the 125 home runs the A’s hit this year, 87 have been solo home runs — which is 70 percent. Lately, the A’s haven’t consistently put together competitive at-bats or force opposing pitchers to throw more pitches, Melvin said after Saturday’s loss, “So we can take a little pressure off the pitchers to where they have to be perfect.”
Oakland’s put together more competitive at-bats on Sunday, particularly toward the end of Gonzales’ outing, but little came of them. Seth Brown’s solo home run off off Casey Sadler was A’s sixth hit of the game and the only hit the A’s could get after Gonzales’ departure.
“There’s a lot of baseball left,” Olson said. “We just need a big hit, a big game, something to spark us a little bit and get rolling. In the past we’ve had some walk-offs, some big hits, some go-ahead hits. And that kind of stuff, you get some momentum rolling and it feels good and you start winning games.”
The A’s tried a comeback in the ninth when Chapman was hit by a Drew Steckenrider pitch. Mitch Moreland hit a single the other way and Chapman, trying to be aggressive, went for third base from first with fewer than two outs.
Outfielder Jake Bauers’ throw beat him by a halfinch, and a challenge was unsuccessful.
“When he went, I was fine with it,” Melvin said. “I want him to try to get to third with less than two outs.
“It was an aggressive play and we needed an aggressive play.”