A’s rally late, only to fall in 10 innings
Mariners triumph with a comeback of their own against Trivino
This A’s team has thrived off an ability to scrape comeback wins together. It’s become clear their American League West Division foes have picked up some of their tricks.
The A’s lost 6-5 in a wild extrainning game to the Seattle Mariners on Memorial Day at T-Mobile Park. It’s their third loss in four games to the Mariners.
Oakland put together the kind of comeback it’s excelled at, taking a one-run lead in the 10th inning, but squandered the lead and win with Tom Murphy’s walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th off closer Lou Trivino capping the Mariners victory.
“You want to win the game, obviously,” manager Bob Melvin
said. “But you can’t get overly frustrated because you want to come out and win tomorrow.”
Given the A’s offensive woes lately, the comeback felt unlikely. They entered the eighth inning down two runs and having gone without a home run in four games, their longest homerless stretch since May 2018. The streak would extend to five games, but they found some other ways to score.
“Good teams got to find a way to do both,” A’s first baseman Matt Olson said. “We put up some runs today doing it without hitting homers. But sometimes we get rolling when one person does it.”
Mark Canha led off the eighth with a walk and Olson singled to put runners on the corners. Olson was quick to point out Mariners reliever JT Chargois’ balk, scoring Canha and cutting the deficit to one run. Then Sean Murphy tied the game with a double with a game-high 112 mph exit velocity.
The A’s rode that momentum into the 10th, when pinch hitter Aramís Garcia hit a two-out single up the middle to score Olson — the ghost runner on second base — to give the A’s a lead they’d hold for all of a few minutes.
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert has become a familiar face for the A’s, facing them a second time this year. The pitcher’s 7.59 ERA entering Monday was an opportunity for the A’s to break out of a slump.
Chad Pinder took advantage, breaking out of a 1-for-17 homestand with a three-hit day, two off the Mariners’ top pitching prospect. He was central to the A’s first runs, doubling in the third inning and scoring on Tony Kemp’s sacrifice fly, and doubling again in the fifth, scoring on Olson’s double.
Though the A’s haven’t hit a home run in five games, and have hit just two over their last seven, their 70 total home runs still rank third in the American League behind the Toronto Blue Jays (77) and Minnesota Twins (72).
KAPRIELIAN ROUGHED UP >> Without his best command, James Kaprielian’s fourth big league start was his roughest. After incurring a nifty 3-6-1 double play in the fourth inning, Kaprielian left a two-strike breaking ball up to No. 9 hitter Donovan Walton with runners on the corners for a threerun home run. Then he walked Jarred Kelenic, who scored on a Kyle Lewis run-and-hit.
What came back to bite Kaprelian were the three walks and hit-by-pitch, all spurred by command issues.
“I’d say I’m pretty disappointed in that,” Kaprielian said. “That’s what bums me out most about this start is giving guys the free 90 feet. I made a couple mistakes and probably threw guys a few pitches I hadn’t done, but it’s the free 90 feet, the hit by pitches. I’m better than that, I know I am. And that blows innings out of proportion.”
Kaprielian departed two outs into the fourth inning having allowed four runs on five hits with the three walks and three strikeouts. He was held to roughly an 85-pitch count in his start, Melvin said, considering the workload he’s been accustomed to thus far.
He’d reached 81 pitches by the time Deolis Guerra relieved him.
The A’s touted pitching prospect showed off a crisp slider and changeup while struggling with his fastball command; a flipped performance from the seven scoreless innings he dealt in his last start against the Mariners, when he had impeccable fastball command and little feel for his secondary stuff.
BULLPEN KEEPS TEAM IN IT >> The A’s bullpen retired 12 straight batters before J.P. Crawford’s single in the eighth inning off Jake Diekman. Had Trivino and the A’s held the 10th-inning lead, Yusmeiro Petit would have been in line for his eighth win.
The bullpen could only hold on so long. Trivino gave up a game-tying RBI single to Ty France and a rare Olson error at first base off Crawford’s soft grounder put runners on the corners. Murphy’s sacrifice fly scored the winning run.
CHAPMAN’S STRUGGLES CONTINUE >> Chapman struck out three times on Monday and is now 3 for his last 36 with 13 strikeouts and nine walks.
Chapman isn’t chasing pitches, but he’s swinging through hittable fastballs in the zone — his bread and butter. At the beginning of the season, Chapman said he might have developed some bad habits at the plate to compensate for his hip pain during the 2020 season. Eight months after surgery to repair his torn labrum, Chapman looks to still be shaking those bad habits at the plate.
LAUREANO HEADED FOR IL >> Ramón Laureano took batting practice and did drills before Monday’s game but came out of it feeling “not good,” Melvin said, adding they expect to place Laureano on the IL today.
Laureano has been out since May 27 with a nagging groin injury.