Oakland lit up by Toronto, Semien
Former A’s star has four hits, home run
It’s safe to say the Athletics miss Marcus Semien.
They miss having him around the clubhouse and said as much when their former shortstop made his first trip to the Coliseum this week with the Toronto Blue Jays as a second baseman.
But where Semien is really missed is on the field, as was evident in a 10-4 loss to Toronto Thursday at the Coliseum before a crowd of 3,611.
Semien had four hits, including a double and a home run, and Randal Grichuk drove in five runs with a home run and a double as the A’s dropped three of four in the series and fell to 19-14.
The Blue Jays (16-14) had 16 hits against five A’s pitchers. Semien’s home run, his seventh, put Toronto up 10-4 in the seventh. Danny Jansen also homered for Toronto, his first. For the A’s, Mark Canha had his first leadoff home run, his fifth of the season.
For those keeping score, Elvis Andrus, the shortstop the A’s acquired after Semien left in free agency, continued to be mired in a season-long slump, going 0-for-4 and poetically popping to Semien at second to end the game.
Hyun Jin Ryu (2-2) gave up six hits and four earned runs through five innings, walking one and striking out six. Toronto got scoreless relief from Travis Bergen and Joel Payamps.
The Blue Jays added on to their lead against reliever Sergio Romo in the sixth, with Teoscar Hernandez hitting a two-run single and Grichuk a two-run double in span of four pitches in relief of Deolis Guerra.
Semien reached on a one-out bloop single, with Bichette following with a single. Vladimir Guerrero’s comebacker to Guerra was a potential inning-ending double play, but Guerra threw the ball in the dirt and Kemp couldn’t come up with it, loading the bases.
Romo came in and gave up a
the first-pitch single to Hernandez to bring in two runs and then Grichuk’s double plated two more. Romo finished the inning limping, having apparently injured his knee backing up on an overthrown relay from the outfield, sliding to get the ball before it rolled into the A’s dugout.
A’s starter Mike Fiers (02) didn’t make it through the fourth, departing with a 5-4 deficit following Jansen’s two-run home run. It came after Johnathan Davis led off with a single.
After the home run, Fiers did get out Semien for the first time on a fly to right, but was pulled after Bo Bichette’s infield single during which Fiers couldn’t make it to the bag on time to cover.
Guerra came on, and although Bichette stole two bases against him and Hernandez one, he got out of the inning without giving up another run
The Athletics took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the third on Matt Olson’s RBI double and Sean Murphy’s two-run single, both with two out against Ryu.
Fiers couldn’t escape damage in the third inning, with Grichuk’s threerun home run with two out giving Toronto a 3-1 lead.