A’s follow the plan to beat the Rays
Oakland jumps on Glasnow early for win
The Athletics had already faced Tyler Glasnow once. They had seen the sharp fastball and been outclassed by looping breaking balls. But they also managed to form a plan to beat the Rays’ ace if they saw him again. And in their 6-3 victory over Glasnow and the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, they expeditiously put that plan into action and improved to 2114 on the year.
“You’ve got to score runs early in the game and or wear him out and get him out of the game,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We did a little of both.”
Oakland jumped on Glasnow (4-2) right away. In the first inning they forced him to throw 30 pitches, punctuated by a towering tworun home run to center by Seth Brown, who hit his first career walk-off homer in the A’s 2-1 win against the Rays on Friday night and has quietly established himself as one of the A’s most dangerous players at the plate.
The 28-year-old has clubbed five home runs while hitting .273 with a .904 OPS. Only second baseman Jed Lowrie owns a higher batting average (.282) than Brown, who did not make the A’s opening day roster.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Melvin said. “The last two days, if we don’t have him there’s a good chance we don’t win the game. He’s stepped up big for us not only in these last two games but since he’s been here.”
The A’s continued to apply pressure to Glasnow as the game wore on. In the second inning, catcher Austin Allen hammered a line drive homer to right to give
his team a 3-0 lead against the premier pitcher.
Allen was playing in his 50th game in the majors and first as a member of the A’s with his family in the stands.
“It felt really good,” Allen said. “Any time you can help put runs on the board it’s a really good feeling. I’m just trying to do everything I can do to help the team win.”
Brown and Allen’s homers represented the A’s only two hits off Glasnow, who struck out 11 batters. But the boxscore hardly tells the whole story. Oakland was able to force Glasnow to throw 101 pitches in 5.2 innings. It was his second-shortest outing this year and the second-most pitches he’s thrown in an outing that lasted six or fewer innings.
Melvin said before the game that running Glasnow’s pitch count up was his team’s primary objective in order to get to the Tampa Bay bullpen. And once the A’s were able to chase Glasnow from the game, they scored three runs on four hits and two walks. Shortstop Elvis Andrus and second baseman Tony Kemp both doubled off the Rays’ bullpen.
Oakland was able to execute on the mound on Saturday, too. Right-handed starter Frankie Montas allowed two runs over 5.1 innings and struck out six.
Entering play, Montas hadn’t allowed fewer than three runs in a start since April 16 when he pitched six shutout innings against Detroit. And while Brandon Lowe’s tworun home run in the sixth inning may have slightly soured what was otherwise a strong day for Montas, he was able to lower his season ERA from 5.87 to 5.50 and earn his fourth victory of the year.
“He only gave up five hits, a hit an inning, and he struck out six,” Melvin said. “All-in-all, he deserved a win.”
Montas has struggled with consistency this year. At times he falls behind in counts and can’t catch up, allowing opposing hitters to reach base seemingly at will. But when Montas gets in rhythm his fastball causes batters to squirm.
His splitter keeps them off balance. He felt he did that against the Rays.
“I feel like I was really good today, honestly, especially with locating my fastball,” Montas said. “I feel like even the home run was a good pitch. I wanted to go fastball in and I threw a fastball in. He just put a good swing on it. Besides that I feel like I was hitting my spots today.”
The A’s relievers were effective against the Rays as well.
Yusmeiro Petit made his American League leading 18th appearance, striking out three in 1.1 scoreless innings. Lefty Jake Diekman was the only A’s reliever to allow a run, which proved inconsequential.
Closer Lou Trivino earned his sixth save of the year despite loading the bases with nobody out in the top of the ninth. His appearance had shades of his previous outing, in which he blew a save and allowed five earned runs while getting just one out. On Saturday, though, Trivino avoided disaster.
“Ain’t nobody sweating on Lou,” Montas said. “He’s good at what he’s doing and you know he’s going to go out there and do his best.”
The A’s have won six of their last 10 games and have an opportunity to turn that momentum into their first series sweep tomorrow against Tampa Bay. The A’s haven’t swept a series since late April when they took all three games against the Minnesota Twins.