Same old woes strike again in latest 1-run loss
By Susan Slusser
Oakland’s shortcomings are almost becoming perfected, if that’s possible, or maybe ingrained is the better word. The A’s are consistent in the extreme with their failings.
It’s all becoming so predictable. Locked in a tie with the White Sox in the seventh inning Saturday night at the Coliseum, the A’s had played well defensively, and reliever Fernando Rodriguez entered the game and retired the first two men he faced.
That’s when the famil- iar bugaboos — errors and faulty relief pitching — struck, all in one. Rodriguez fielded a bunt by Adam Eaton and threw wildly down the first-base line, letting Eaton go all the way to third. Then Rodriguez gave up a goahead single to Melky Cabrera and a run-scoring double to Jose Abreu, and that wound up deciding things in the A’s 4-3 loss.
“I just didn’t make a good play on it,” Rodriguez said. “That probably should have been one where I just kept it, let
them have a base hit. That changes the whole game there. … I just made an awful decision.”
Oakland’s major-league-worst record stands at 13-25. Nine of the past 12 losses have been by one run, and the A’s have lost 13 one-run games total, the most in the majors.
“When you’re in that many games, and you lose by one run that many times, certainly you expect to win more of them,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We just haven’t, and we’ve got to find a way to do it. It’s frustrating. A lot of times, it feels like the same game. Whether we come back to be down one run or give it up, we’re just not getting quite enough.”
“It’s right there,” A’s starter Jesse Chavez said. “It’s just one play, one at-bat, one pitch, one cue ball off the end of the bat that doesn’t go our way. We’re still hungry, that’s the thing. ... One thing that’s really good is that we don’t dwell on anything, which is amazing as long as this has gone on. But it has to come to an end.”
Melvin had hoped a return to the Coliseum would help, but the A’s have dropped four of five at home in the past week. The defense has continued to disappoint, with errors in 13 consecutive games, the team’s longest such streak since April 7-21, 1983. Oakland’s 38 errors are eight more than any other club has.
The offense provided Chavez a 2-0 lead on a first-inning homer by Billy Butler, then lapsed into torpor, going hitless from the third through seventh innings. The A’s final run scored on a double-play grounder by Josh Reddick in the eighth.
Chavez, mostly pretty good Saturday, allowed two hits with one out in the third, and then the killer, a two-out, two-run single by Avisail Garcia on a 3-2 pitch.
Oakland’s bullpen has allowed two runs or more in 20 of 38 games. And the relievers’ 12 losses are the most in the majors. Is there any help on the way? There could be one at least fun possibility: Ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte worked 22⁄ more scoreless
3 innings at Triple-A Nashville on Saturday, lowering his ERA to 1.09. He hasn’t made it to the big leagues, and at this point, a great story couldn’t possibly hurt. Plus, the A’s have little from the left side in the bullpen, considering Fernando Abad’s 6.10 ERA.
Coco Crisp was shuffled down the order to seventh, went hitless in four at-bats and is 2-for-37 since coming off the disabled list. He contributed a nice defensive play, though, making a spinning grab in the corner on a foul drive by Cabrera in the ninth.
“He’ll get going and then we’ll get him back in the leadoff spot, because that’s where we need him,” Melvin said.