Oakland surrenders lead twice in 6-4 loss to Pirates.
Offensive lull costs Oakland chance at back-to-back wins
PITTSBURGH, PA. >> For the first half-hour of Saturday’s game, it looked like a continuation of what transpired a day earlier for the A’s. Their bats were alive, and they couldn’t stop hitting.
Then, all of a sudden, the spigot shut off. After scoring three runs on five hits in the first inning — all with two outs — the A’s managed four hits and one run the rest of the way.
The offensive disappearance led to a 6-4 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park. It also cost the A’s a chance to win back-to-back games for the first time since sweeping the Rangers April 22-24.
On Friday, Oakland lit up the Pirates for 14 runs on 16 hits, with Josh Phegley driving in eight of those runs during a storybook night.
Less than 24 hours later, the magic disappeared; Phegley went 0 for 4.
Chris Bassitt took the loss on the mound, allowing five hits and three earned runs in five innings. All three came on home runs courtesy of Pirates first baseman Josh Bell.
The Pirates jumped in front for good with a seventh-inning triple by shortstop Kevin Newman, although it’s unlikely that J.B. Wendelken would do anything differently.
Wendelken worked down in the zone with a 96 mph fastball, a pitcher’s pitch. Newman stuck his bat out and went the opposite way with it, poking a shot to the right field corner.
That scored two, and Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli followed with single through the left side for the 6-4 lead.
A miscue by the Pirates in right field helped put the A’s ahead, 4-3, in the fifth inning.
Matt Chapman hit a ball off the Clemente Wall in right, but center field Starling Marte wound up having to field it, the result of a poor angle taken by Pirates right fielder Gregory Polanco.
The next A’s batter, Khris Davis, drove a single up the middle to score Chapman.
The A’s had a chance to pad their lead in the seventh inning after Skye Bolt, who made his MLB debut on Friday, got his first bigleague hit, a double to right field.
After Pirates’ setup man Keone Kela left the game with right shoulder discomfort, Michael Feliz made up for a walk to Robbie Grossman by blowing 93 and 94 mph fastballs by Chapman and Davis to end the inning. Some terrific two-out hitting put the A’s ahead, 3-0, after the first inning.
Chapman started the rally with an opposite-field double and scored when Davis went the same way with an RBI single.
One batter later, Kendrys Morales hit his first triple since 2015 when Polanco dived too early, scoring Davis. Stephen Piscotty stretched Oakland’s lead to 3-0 with his single to left.
Bell led off the second with a solo home run, a 2-2 cutter that he pulled into the right-field stands.
An inning later, Bell crushed a 1-0 sinker 451 feet to center field, scoring Marte and tying the game at 3.
• When the A’s return to the Coliseum next week following a nine-game road trip, they might have a welcome-home present for their fans.
Matt Olson, who homered last night for Triple-A Las Vegas, could return from an extended absence because of right hand surgery, manager Bob Melvin said Saturday before the A’s took on the Pirates at PNC Park.
Melvin said the plan was for Olson, who had 29 home runs and 84 RBIs in 2018, to play first base on Saturday and serve as the designated hitter on Sunday.
“Then we’ll process where we are with him,” Melvin said.
Asked whether next week could be a possibility, Melvin replied, “Potentially, yep.”
Olson had surgery to remove a broken hamate bone on March 22. The Gold Glove winner played first base for the first time in his rehab assignment on Thursday.
Olson wasn’t the only bit of positive injury news for Melvin to discuss. Among the other topics:
• Melvin said that Sean Manaea, who had arthroscopic shoulder surgery in September 2018, will throw his first bullpen on Tuesday.
• Nick Martini, who was diagnosed with a sprained right knee in late February, will run the bases the same day. If that goes well, he’ll head out on a rehab assignment.
• Jharel Cotton, who underwent successful UCL reconstruction surgery on March 21, has been throwing in extended spring training. Melvin estimated that Cotton will be up to three innings his next time out.
• Edwin Jackson threw 102 pitches for Triple-A Las Vegas on Friday and fared “all right,” according to Melvin.
Jackson, who signed a minor-league deal with the A’s on April 12, allowed two earned runs on three hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out four.
Everything appeared to check out, although the numbers would indicate Jackson was wasteful with some of his pitches.