Rangers power past struggling lefty Manaea
Starter continues skid as Oakland falls back in wild-card, division races
The dog days of August have caught up with Sean Manaea.
The left-hander struggled Sunday for the third start in a row, and the A’s lost 7-4 to the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas.
With the loss, the second in three games to the last-place Rangers, the A’s squandered an opportunity to gain ground in either the wild-card or divisional races. They fell into a tie with Boston for the wild-card lead and are 2½ games behind Houston in the West with the next seven games against two first-place teams, the White Sox and Giants.
“They’ve been tough on us this year,” Mark Canha said of the Rangers. “They play good baseball when we come here.”
They were all over Manaea on
Sunday. The southpaw starter gave up three home runs, the most he allowed in a game since the 2019 AL wild-card game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Rookie DJ Peters had two of them, both tworun shots.
Manaea (8-8), who had allowed eight runs in his previous six innings, gave up seven in five innings Sunday. The 15 runs in three August starts equals the number of runs he gave up over 10 starts in June and July.
“I thought today there was more life on the baseball and he had better command,” Melvin said. “It was just some long balls. Balls in the middle of the plate that counted for almost everything. You’re never going to be perfect. This is a tough stretch for him, a lot of guys go through tough stretches. He just has to pitch his way out.”
Manaea wasn’t as optimistic.
“Today, just giving up home runs, so, yeah,” Manaea said. “I guess, throwing stuff down the middle, I guess that counts as better command.”
Even if there’s some improvement, Manaea has not been as sharp this month. And unlike in Manaea’s previous starts, Melvin didn’t pull him once things started to unravel in the first three innings.
His fastball velocity still hits 95 mph, a good mark for the lefthanded pitcher, but wavered more toward 90 mph as his start wore on. The hope is that Manaea can grind through the skid.
“Sean is such a smart, thorough guy in which he goes about his business,” Canha said. “It’s a little bit of a rough patch. He’s entitled to that the way he’s pitched this year. Everyone here is human. He’s had a rough stretch and he’s going to be back next start dealing. It’s only a matter of time before he cleans up whatever has gone wrong in the last outings and he’s back to his regular self.” CONFIDENT A’S OFFENSE » Matt Chapman continued his hot trip with a three-hit game that included his 17th home run, a solo shot in the second inning off Rangers lefthanded starter Kolby Allard. His third hit, a single, led to Oakland’s third run.
Batting .213 with 146 strikeouts heading into this road trip, Chapman has eight hits, three home runs and nine walks with just four strikeouts in six games this trip.
“We all know what he’s capable of and we knew it was only a matter of time before he came around,” Canha said.
Canha’s solo home run was the A’s second run and might’ve signaled a slump bust of his own. Canha came into the game 1 for 19.
“Felt really good to get one,” Canha said. “Eventually something is going to click, and that’s what I kept telling myself through my little slump. You keep working and chipping away at it, and eventually you’re going to crack. I think that’s happening for some guys.”
NEAR COMEBACK » The A’s nearly mounted a comeback win, bringing the tying run to the plate in Starling Marte with two outs in the ninth inning.
They got a late run when Matt Olson sprinted from first base on Sean Murphy’s double down the rightfield line in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Jed Lowrie singled and Canha drew a walk to bring Marte up, but he flew out to end the game.