Troubles mounting for Oakland
SEATTLE — A wretched start to the season keeps getting worse for the A’s.
In a matchup for last place in the division with the Mariners, Oakland succumbed 4- 3 in 11 innings on Friday when Logan Morrison hit the first pitch of the inning from Dan Otero out to center.
It was yet another one- run loss — the A’s major- league- leading ninth — and the ninth loss charged to the bullpen, which also wasted the lead in the seventh.
“Nobody is here to badmouth anybody, but at some point, we’ve got to have somebody ( who) steps up, bottom line,” said right fielder Josh Reddick, who hit a
two- run homer to give Oakland the lead in the fifth.
The A’s ( 12- 19) fell into last place alone in the ALWest, with their worst record after 31 games since 2001. And on top of that, Oakland now is dealing with setbacks to two key rehabbing starters, Jarrod Parker and A. J. Griffin.
Parker left a rehab outing at Triple- A Nashville with a potentially significant elbow injury; observers told The Chronicle that Parker was in “excruciating pain” and close to tears coming off the field.
“You cross your fingers, obviously, for Jarrod. I don’t even know what to say,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “For a guy who’s worked as hard as he has to get back, I really don’t have words for that. I just feel really bad for him.”
Griffin, like Parker recovering from Tommy John surgery, was shut down Thursday with shoulder soreness two innings into a three- inning simulated game at extended spring training in Arizona. He returned to the Bay Area to see team doctors.
Parker, 26, is attempting to be just the second big- league starter after Chris Capuano to make more than a handful of starts after a second Tommy John surgery. Friday was his fourth rehab start, and he went 52⁄ 3 innings before injuring his elbow on a pitch that bounced 10 feet away from the plate between home and third.
Fans in attendance said that Parker went down in a heap on the mound, clutching his arm. The A’s said in a release that Parker left the game with an elbow injury but there would be no diagnosis until he has seen a doctor.
Post- orthopedic- surgery injuries sometimes are not as severe as they appear, however. In 2011, then- A’s closer Andrew Bailey had a similar scare during spring training that turned out to be scar tissue tearing and a forearm strain; Bailey missed the first half of the season.
Parker was 25- 16 for the A’s in 2012- 13 and he was projected to rejoin Oakland’s rotation later this month. He had been throwing 92- 94 mph in his rehab outings.
Sonny Gray started for Oakland on Friday and went six innings, throwing 104 pitches and matching his shortest outing of the year. He allowed only one run and he left with Oakland up 3- 1.
Three innings, though, is a lot to ask for from the A’s bullpen these days. Evan Scribner, the A’s most reliable reliever. began the seventh and was charged with two runs; left- hander Fernando Abad replaced Scribner with two outs and one on and though he jumped ahead of Robinson Cano 1- 2, Cano knocked a double down the first- base line to tie the game.
“I don’t want to say this is how it goes sometimes, but we’re obviously a lot better than how we’re playing,” Gray said. “I really believe that.”
The A’s did get a second consecutive day of fine work from just- called- up Fernando Rodriguez, who retired all five men he faced.