A’s unhappy with blown lead, defeat to the Giants
Trivino gives up late HR, says ‘Quite frankly, it sucks’
OAKLAND >> The A’s entered the ninth inning Saturday afternoon with a one-run lead over the Giants but left with a 6-5 loss after closer Lou Trivino gave up a two-run homer to pinch hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. in the top of the inning.
The home run was the first Trivino has allowed since June 30 and his third blown save this season, his first since May 31.
“Not all losses are equal,” Trivino said. “We needed to win that game. It sucks. Quite frankly, it sucks. We had the lead most of the game and I thought we were on a roll.”
The loss also served as a reminder of an added challenge the A’s will face without Chris Bassitt, the AL
leader in innings pitched, after he was struck in the face with a line drive this week.
Starter Sean Manaea made it through just 4 2/3 innings on Saturday after James Kaprielian went five on Friday, and the bullpen started to show some cracks.
Andrew Chafin, pitching for the third time in four days, entered the eighth inning with a three-run lead and gave up back-to-back home runs to Brandon Belt and Darin Ruf, cutting the A’s lead to one run.
Those were the first earned runs Chafin allowed in 11 appearances since the A’s acquired him at the deadline from the Chicago Cubs. He’d given up just one other home run this season back in April. Belt was 0 for 16 in his career against Chafin.
“Few balls up. Belt is a good low-ball hitter and it’s a good matchup, but he got a ball he could handle,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s a good home-run-hitting team. That’s how they scored everything today. And when we made mistakes that’s how they took advantage.”
Trivino made his third straight appearance Saturday, his pitches looking as effective as usual except for one inside fastball to Wade, who crushed it 105 miles per hour over the right-field wall. Trivino said he wanted to keep that pitch a bit higher.
“You don’t want to throw a lefty down and in. They tend to hit that well,” Trivino said. “But apparently, they hit 94 up and in pretty well, too. So it is what it is.”
Jake Diekman barely escaped trouble in the eighth inning, giving up two weakcontact singles back-to-back. But the Giants helped him out a bit when Curt Casali popped out on a bunt attempt, Diekman caught Crawford stealing and then struck out Austin Slater to strand the runners. HOW THE A’S TOOK AN EARLY LEAD >> Seth Brown, optioned to Triple-A Friday with Chad Pinder’s return to the roster, was halfway to Las Vegas in his car when he got a call from the A’s head honchos. Stephen Piscotty had been placed on the 10-day IL with a right wrist sprain Saturday morning and Brown would need to turn around and drive back to Oakland.
Hours later, Brown hit a two-run single to spark a three-run inning that started with a throwing error by Giants third baseman Wilmer Flores, putting Mark Canha on third in the first inning.
Starling Marte doubled to the gap in left-center field to score Canha. When Josh Harrison was hit by a pitch, he and Marte combined for a double steal. It was Marte’s 15th stolen base in just 20 games with the A’s. Brown scored them with an opposite-field bloop.
Oakland added on in the third inning against Giants starter Kevin Gausman. Matt Olson worked a nine-pitch atbat for a single and Harrison notched his third hit of the series, a double to score Olson from first base. The A’s had an opportunity to break it open in the fourth inning, loading the bases on back-to-back hits from Sean Murphy and Tony Kemp, plus a Canha walk. But they could only score one on Gausman’s wild pitch when Marte struck out and Olson flied out against reliever Jarlín García.
The A’s had a good read on Gausman’s fastball-splitter combination. But the Giants bullpen held the A’s scoreless after Gausman’s departure two outs into the fourth inning.
“We were in a position to win the game,” Melvin said. “Offensively we did OK today. Certainly more early than late. This is a game we usually nail down.”
MANAEA’S ROUGH STRETCH CONTINUES >> Manaea didn’t have optimal control of his pitches, but he held the Giants to just a Kris Bryant tworun home run before his departure with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning. Yusmeiro Petit cleaned up the mess, getting Flores to line out softly to Kemp to strand the runners.
Strong through most of this season, Manaea hasn’t been able to escape the fifth inning over his last four starts, accruing a 9.77 ERA over that span.
“Last three starts were horrible, so to have an outing like that to grind through it and do something like that was huge,” Manaea said. At the end of the day, it was just OK.”
Manaea said he took a step in the right direction with his slider and changeup and upped his fastball velocity a bit — he was hitting 94 mph more consistently — compared to his previous three starts.