Chapman leaves with hip pain in A’s loss
OAKLAND >> After extending to snag the Padres’ Jurickson Profar’s ground ball in the fourth inning, the A’s Matt Chapman’s hip didn’t feel right. He’d experienced some mild right hip discomfort in previous games, but this hurt a little more.
It nagged him enough that the A’s third baseman left the game in the sixth inning, with Chad Pinder taking over. Chapman will have an MRI, manager Bob Melvin said after the A’s 5-3 loss to the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
Not great timing with the A’s lead atop the American League West shrinking — 3 1/2 games after the loss — and their main challenger, the Houston Astros, coming into town for five games hoping to close the gap.
“It’s not great timing, period,” Melvin said. “We have a lot of teams with injuries right now. We’ve been pretty fortunate.”
Chapman, 27, had a particularly unpleasant series all around against the Padres.
Sunday, he recorded his seventh consecutive strikeout over the course of two games. His timing has been off, though Melvin asserts the hip injury has little, if nothing, to do with his rough at bats. GROSSMAN VS. NEW YORK REPLAY >> The A’s put up three runs against Padres right-handed starter Garrett Richards, and they could have had a fourth.
Robbie Grossman sprinted from third into home plate on Richards’ wild strikeout pitch to Sean Murphy that slipped away from catcher Jason Castro.
Grossman’s foot appeared to slide over home plate just as Richards swiped his leg for the tag. Grossman was called out, and the A’s had a morethan-decent shot at having a call reversed in their favor.
The call was upheld, though. Grossman threw his arms up in the air when the umpires relayed the confirmed out call from New York’s replay review center.
“We have to win one at some point,” Grossman said, adding that everyone around him was sure he was safe. “They (the replay umpires) are the only ones that thought I was out.”
Frustrations mostly stem from a clear pattern of A’s losing their challenges. With that, their challenge record for this season moved to 2-7.
“I mean, don’t even get me started at this point,” Melvin said. “Going forward, I’ll try not to get frustrated by it.”
FIERS’ DAY >> A’s starter
Mike Fiers couldn’t contain the Padres’ offense. Not many can, anyway. Still, he managed to keep “Slam Diego” in the park on a horridly hot day.
The thermostat read 94 degrees at first pitch. According to the A’s, that’s the hottest temperature recorded for a baseball game in Coliseum history. The Padres would get their runs, though, on Eric Hosmer’s RBI single and Manny Machado’s sac fly in the third inning and Jake Cronenworth’s RBI double in the fourth.
He left the game having thrown five innings, allowed three runs with four strikeouts and two walks on 90 pitches.
Fernando Tatís Jr. would take care of the home run situation, though, hitting a two-run home run off Yusmeiro Petit that put the Padres’ fourth and fifth runs on theboard.
MURPHY’S POWER >> Sean Murphy used some of the hot air, too, hitting his third home run 422 feet into the left-center bleachers.
When Murphy hits a home run, he hits it. His three homers have traveled a collective 1,276 feet and averaged a 107 mph exit velocity off his bat.
Tommy La Stella’s impact >> The A’s swooped up impending free agent Tommy La Stella to be a strikeout averse, consistent contact hitter. He’s
picked up with the A’s where he left off with the Angels, following up a two-hit Saturday with a two-hit Sunday.
With Matt Olson, La Stella was at the center of all the A’s offense Sunday — scoring their two runs on Olson’s RBI singles.
La Stella’s 6.2% strikeout rate — eight total strikeouts — leads all of baseball. In other words, the left-handed hitter’s standout statistics seem to be a product of his elite plate discipline.
La Stella says he learned to become a tough everyday presence in the lineup through his experience as a pinch hitter, off the bench in his four seasons with the Chicago Cubs. With all the hard-throwing pitchers these days, La Stella had to approach his precious at bats knowing he might not generate the hard contact he’d prefer.
“I think, the probabilities of hard contact begin to plummet when you expand the strike zone,” La Stella said. “So, for me, that was really of paramount importance to me, to make sure I’m not expanding the zone.” OLSON’S AVERAGE TICKS UP >> Olson entered the Padres series with a .168 average and 10 home runs, and left it with a .195 average and 10 home runs.
Not only did Olson record his first career triple Saturday, he had four singles over the course of two games, including two RBI singles Sunday. He had three walks Friday.
“He’s always been a second half guy,” Melvin said. “It’s a little different now. But this is the second half of the season and he’s showing up again as you’d expect.”
SEMIEN’S RETURN >> The A’s reign atop the AL West will be tested with a fivegame onslaught against the Astros at the Coliseum this week — including a doubleheader.
Though Vimael Machin has played a great shortstop in games Semien has missed, the A’s will want their starting shortstop back. Semien will take batting practice today, which means he could return for most of the Astros series.