After another loss to Rays, A’s conclude winless homestand
OAKLAND » The A’s may have some rough homestands to come, but it can’t get any worse than the one that concluded Wednesday afternoon.
Reliever Zach Jackson loaded the bases without giving up a hit in the eighth inning to set the stage for the Tampa Bay Rays scoring all of their runs in a 3-0 win over the A’s before an announced crowd of 4,838 at the Coliseum.
The loss brought with it the ignominy of an 0-6 homestand, as the Cleveland Guardians swept the A’s in three games before Tampa Bay came to town and did the same thing. The A’s wasted seven shutout innings from starter Frankie Montas, who was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Corey Kluber that kept the game scoreless until the
eighth inning.
The loss dropped the A’s to 10-15 as they embark on an eight-game trip to Minnesota and Detroit starting Friday. Tampa Bay, which lost three of four to the A’s in Florida in April, improved to 15-10. It was the first winless homestand of six or more games in Oakland history and just the third time it had happened in franchise history.
“There’s some anger in there, because they know we had opportunities to win games on this homestand and didn’t get it done,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Everybody goes through situations where maybe it’s the lack of offense one day, the bullpen doesn’t come through another day, but my whole focus with that group is to keep the mindset that we’re going to go out and win the day.”
Manuel Margot broke the deadlock with a clean, two-run single off Jackson with two out in the eighth, and then Domingo Acevedo balked home the third run of the inning as the A’s late relief faltered for the second straight game.
The Rays loaded the bases without a hit before Margot came through.
Brett Phillips opened the inning with a fivepitch walk off Jackson, went to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a ground out by Yandy Diaz. Jackson then walked Randy Arozarena before a high and inside pitch grazed the hands of Brandon Lowe to load the bases. The A’s protested the hit-by-pitch call but were denied on replay.
Margot then singled to right, bringing in Phillips and Arozarena. Jackson was removed in favor of Acevedo, with Lowe scoring on a balk to make it 3-0.
“He doesn’t help himself walking the leadoff guy in
the eighth,” Kotsay said of Jackson. “He had a chance to get out of it, but he left a breaking ball up for Margot and unfortunately we didn’t get away with the mistake.”
The A’s failed to hold a 5-3 lead Tuesday night with Kirby Snead giving up a two-run home run in the ninth to Mike Zunino and Lou Trivino getting roughed up for five runs in the top of the 10th.
Montas was done after seven scoreless innings, giving up four hits. He walked one and struck out six. Montas threw 103 pitches, 65 of them strikes, before Jackson took over in the eighth. He said his splitter wasn’t working but was able to command his fastball and slider to get outs. Still, Montas’ record remained at 2-2.
“It’s tough, but we played really good defense today,” Montas said. “I feel like they were backing me up. The hits will come. We have a lot of talent here. A lot of talent.”