Manaea, 5run inning keys to Oakland’s win
SEATTLE — Sean Manaea finished his delivery and swung his left leg into a first step toward the A’s dugout. His 103rd pitch Wednesday night, a fastball, ended his seventh strikeout. J.P. Crawford could not muster a swing. Manaea adjusted his jersey shoulder. He swung his arms jauntily. Little this night could affect his rhythm.
Before last Thursday, the A’s had gone 227 games without a starting pitcher completing more than eight innings. Their rotation has two such starts in the past week. Manaea hurled his second career nineinning shutout in a 60 win over the Mariners. He also threw a seveninning shutout in a doubleheader game this April.
Manaea threw 111 pitches, five short of his career high. He allowed four hits, all singles, and struck out eight. He induced a gameending doubleplay grounder from Ty France. Manaea has allowed one run or fewer in seven of 12 starts. Remove an ugly outing in Boston last month and his ERA in 10 other starts is 2.92. ⏩ Manaea’s first hit allowed was a leadoff single by Mitch Haniger in the fourth. Manaea promptly induced a double play. In the fifth, Seattle loaded the bases with two outs on two singles and a walk. Manaea got Crawford, Seattle’s leadoff hitter, to ground out on a 10 changeup to end the threat.
⏩ In the third, Manaea threw a fastball to Jake Fraley clocked at 95.8 mph. According to Brooks Baseball, the last time Manaea reached that velocity in a game was April 2017.
⏩ Manaea gladly bid farewell to May. His career 5.51 ERA in 21 career May starts is his
highest in any month. He went winless in six May starts this season with a 4.78 ERA.
⏩ A fiverun third inning buoyed Oakland. Matt Chapman, whose batting average had dipped to .198 entering the game, worked a leadoff eightpitch walk against starter Chris Flexen. Flexen had totaled 20 pitches in his first two innings.
With one out, Elvis Andrus won a 13pitch atbat, fouling eight pitches before lining a double to left field. Mark Canha followed with a firstpitch, tworun single. Matt Olson drove in Canha with a twoout hit. Mitch Moreland crushed a 444foot home run to center field.
⏩ Andrus entered Wednesday hitting .303 over his previous 22 games. The shortstop had batted .143 in his first 31 games.
⏩ Canha saw three total pitches in his first three atbats. He put all into play for two flyballs and a single. Canha began the game averaging 4.41 pitches per plate appearance, third most among qualified hitters, per baseballreference.com.
⏩ The A’s were allowed to loosen some coronavirus protocols starting Wednesday because 85% of their Tier 1 personnel are fully vaccinated against COVID19. One result: They did not have to wear masks in the dugout or bullpen during the game.
“For people like me who wear glasses, it’s very welcome,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re proud of our group that we were able to get to that and it allows us to do a lot of things.”
Teams at the 85% full vaccination level no longer have to wear tracking devices, and vaccinated individuals can gather in the clubhouse and on team planes and buses, dine indoors and meet outdoors with anyone on road trips.
Tier 1 personnel include majorleague players, coaches, field staff and medical personnel, and the TripleA roster.