San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
The big hit comes at last, snapping losing streak of 3
Amid a quiet start, the A’s have maintained that it’s only a matter of time before their lineup starts to produce to its potential. Saturday, at least, rewarded their patience.
Robbie Grossman’s pinchhit double in the 10th inning drove in Tony Kemp, who’d started the inning on second base as a pinch runner for Khris Davis under the new extrainnings rule, and closer Liam Hendriks stranded his runner to save a 32 win for the A’s over the Mariners in Seattle. Joakim Soria escaped a basesloaded, oneout jam in the ninth with two strikeouts to send the game into extras.
Grossman’s double was the timely hit the A’s have lacked in recent games as they were 2for10 with runners in scoring position Saturday and were 1for20 during a threegame losing streak. He said his approach in the 10th inning was “just get a good pitch to hit . ... Doesn’t matter what rules they put out there. Guys are going to adjust and we’re going to make the best of it.”
Entering Saturday with a .194 team average and .589 onbaseplus slugging — both 28th in the majors — the A’s held a pregame hitters’ meeting that center fielder Ramón Laureano said was nothing odd.
“We’ve just got to do a better job,” Laureano said pregame. “It’s seven games. Everybody from the outside is panicking because it’s what they do. But we’re not panicking.”
For a second straight game, the A’s were held scoreless by a
Seattle starter. Their best chance against Yusei Kikuchi came in the sixth as Davis and Stephen Piscotty singled to start the inning, with Davis recording his first hit of the season to snap an 0for16 start. Sean Murphy and Marcus Semien struck out and Matt Chapman bounced out to third to end the threat.
Their lineup, though, stirred against Seattle’s bullpen. In the seventh, Mark Canha doubled off reliever Nick Margevicius and Chad Pinder homered to tie the game 22. Manager Bob Melvin said the reaction in the dugout to Pinder’s homer, on a 1to10 scale, was “like a 12.”
“We have not gotten big hits,” Melvin said. “We were stagnant again up to that point . ... The difference for us today was we didn’t get a ton of hits, but we got big hits when we needed and that’s what wins games for you when we have the type of pitching we had today.”
Starter Mike Fiers held Seattle to a tworun single by Kyle
Seager in six innings. Fiers did not allow a hit after the third, turning in the longest outing by an A’s rotation member in eight games. A’s relievers combined for four scoreless innings.
Any onfield improvements these days come against a backdrop of uncertainty around baseball. On Saturday, MLB postponed a series between the Cardinals and Brewers following positive coronavirus tests among the Cardinals, and rescheduled games involving the
Yankees, Phillies and Rays. Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain announced he was opting out of the season. Meanwhile, Commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN’s Karl Ravech that “there is no reason to quit now” and “we are playing.”
A’s players have voiced confidence in their safety practices. Pitcher Chris Bassitt said the A’s have stressed vigilance as “things have kind of been going haywire” elsewhere recently.
“I think we’re so close to something that’s not great if we don’t kind of clean it up a little bit … from an overall standpoint,” Bassitt said before the game. “If every team was kind of working the way we’re working here, I think we’d be way better off than what we kind of are. You’re hearing stories about guys not being smart and running around kind of thing — that’s got to stop. I mean, it has to stop.”
Laureano said with 30 teams and hundreds of players and staff, slips in protocol will be a possibility. “We’re human beings,” Laureano said. “But we’ve got to do our part as players, staff, team members. … We’ve got to take control of the situation, and we can do that.”