Graveman better, but win streak ends
ARLINGTON, Texas — Instant success with his modified windup wasn’t in the cards for Kendall Graveman on Wednesday; this isn’t a feel-good movie where the protagonist makes one change and everything turns around immediately.
But Graveman, the A’s Opening Day starter, did turn in his best outing of the season, despite some hiccups. He allowed three runs, a season low, and worked six innings, a season high, but he couldn’t hold the lead in Oakland’s eventual 4-2 loss at Texas, snapping the A’s winning streak at four games.
“Getting better,” Graveman said. “I thought my changeup was really good, I got a lot of swing and misses on it, so that was a big plus. Soft contact, kept the ball in the yard. ... Just kind of bottling up the positives and continuing to move forward.” Graveman entered the game with a 10.07 ERA and hadn’t allowed fewer than four runs in any of his five starts, putting him at risk of demotion. For the second outing in a row, he ditched the overhead portion of his windup, and he allowed six hits and walked four while striking out seven, one shy of his career high.
The four walks matched his career high, and he threw 112 pitches, a season high. He used his spiffed-up changeup 51 times and got nine swinging strikes and seven called strikes with it.
The key inning was the fifth, when Graveman stumbled into trouble with two outs. Jurickson Profar doubled, Nomar Mazara singled him home, and after a walk to Joey Gallo, Isiah Kiner-Falefa sent in Mazara with a base hit. The previous inning, Gallo singled, went to
third on a bloop by Ronald Guzman, and scored when Juan Centeno barely beat out the return throw to first to stay out of what would have been an inning-ending double play. The play was so bang-bang, the A’s asked for a review, but without a conclusive view to overturn the call, it stood. “Tried to get a groundball, he didn’t hit it hard enough,” Graveman said.
The A’s only scoring came on Khris Davis’ seventh homer of the season, a two-out, two-run shot off Doug Fister in the third. Oakland entered the night averaging 6.8 runs per game in its previous 12 games but put only four hits on the board Wednesday.
“We just didn’t play a good game all around,” Melvin said.
Three A’s runners were thrown out at third the past two games, including Marcus Semien attempting to advance on a flyball Wednesday with no outs and his team down one run; Delino DeShields nailed him. “It’s more maybe considering who’s coming up,” Melvin said. “You’re going to run on DeShields, that’s the scouting report. That’s the best throw I’ve seen him make.”
For the third time in four
games, the A’s had a reliever get injured and for the second night in a row, the reliever had to exit. On Tuesday, it was closer Blake Treinen, who left in the eighth after getting smoked on his right leg by a line drive by ShinSoo Choo.
On Wednesday, it was Choo at the plate again, and when Ryan Buchter struck him out in the seventh, the left-hander grimaced and took a stroll around the mound while trainer Jeff Collins came to check on him. Buchter departed with what the A’s announced as shoulder stiffness. His velocity dipped from its usual 93-94 mph to 89, and, Melvin said, “We didn’t want to mess around with that.”
Buchter, obtained from Kansas City along with absorbing Brandon Moss’ salary, has worked in a team-high 12 games, and his ERA is 1.69, second among A’s relievers behind Treinen’s 1.50. He’ll be re-evaluated in Houston.
Emilio Pagan retired both men he faced in the seventh before allowing a run in the eighth. Pagan, acquired from Seattle for Ryon Healy over the winter, has allowed runs in seven of his 11 outings, and his