With wasted opportunities, A’s fall 5.5 games back of Astros in loss - Vacaville Reporter

A series of missed scoring opportunities left the A’s with a frustrating 4-3 loss to the Houston Astros on Wednesday night in Houston. The loss was another low in the A’s troubling skid that spans five series.

With that, the A’s lose the series and fall 5.5 games back of the Astros for first in the American League West. They’ve gone winless in six straight series for the first time since 2017 and have lost 11 of their last 16 games.

“It’s just a little tough stretch and that’s it and we’ve got to keep working hard and keep competing,” Ramón Laureano said.

With the All-Star break approaching and the trade deadline not far off that, it’s not a time to panic. The roster is too short and the A’s may be gassed.

“I know this team might be going through a little rough patch right now,” Sean Manaea said. “But at the end of the day we’re just going to keep grinding it out and I know things will turn around.”

Mark Canha’s absence atop the lineup has created an offensive vacuum. Matt Chapman’s absence from Wednesday’s loss due to a stomach flu that had him hooked to an IV at the hospital that morning added to the loss. Designated hitter Mitch Moreland absence — out for an undisclosed reason — could have tied together an already depleted lineup against a right-handed pitcher.

The A’s will also be without Chad Pinder for “a while,” manager Bob Melvin said, after he re-aggravated his right hamstring trying to out-run Carlos Correa’s laser throw off his back foot on the game’s final out. Even with the issues, a win was still in reach.

Those missed chances: The A’s had a handful of opportunities to break the game open. Except for Home Run Derby participant Matt Olson’s first home run since June 20, his 21st of the year, the A’s couldn’t get going until the fifth inning against right-handed starter Luis Garcia.

They got runners in scoring position on Stephen Piscotty’s walk, Seth Brown’s force out and Pinder’s double. But Tony Kemp struck out looking at Garcia’s fastball to end the threat.

The A’s worked with a deficit until Cristian Javier replaced Garcia and Elvis Andrus smacked a home run into the Crawford Boxes, fulfilling a promise to “hit more bombs” after hitting his first as an Athletic against the Boston Red Sox last weekend.

Then Oakland loaded the bases with no outs on Olson’s walk and back-to-back hits from Laureano and Jed Lowrie. A run scored on a wild pitch tied the game and was the only one they could squeeze when Laureano was thrown out at home by left fielder Michael Brantley on Sean Murphy’s fly ball.

It appeared Houston catcher Martin Maldonado blocked the plate on the throw, forcing Laureano to jam his ankle — he said he’s “all good” — but the A’s saw it as a losing challenge.

“Our replay said no,” Melvin said. “That the throw came to one side and took him towards where he ended up which was right in the middle of the plate. I went back and looked at it later and that was the case.”

A pair of Altuve errors had runners in scoring position with fewer than two outs again in the seventh, but Andrus’ fly ball wasn’t deep enough to score pinch-runner Skye Bolt from third — third base coach Mark Kotsay decided against testing Brantley’s arm again — and Olson flew out to end the threat.

The A’s have been thrown out at home four times in their last five games. With the scoring opportunities limited as they’ve been, Kotsay has been aggressive on the sends home.

“Offensively we haven’t been great recently and we’re trying to score some runs,” Melvin said. “This is a difficult park sometimes to get a gauge on because left field is so short. But we’re trying to push some runs across and on the other side of it, defenses are making some good throws on us right now.”

Sean Manaea keeps them in it: Manaea had some of his best stuff on Wednesday and it took him two outs into the seventh inning against the most potent offense in baseball.

One trouble caught up to him, and it started with Pinder’s throwing error and escalated with Jose Altuve launching a 3-1 fastball into left field for a three-run home run.

“In that situation definitely fastball wasn’t the right pitch,” Manaea said. “Even if it was the wrong pitch, it could have been a lot better location, so it’s just on me being able to focus in that situation.”

Manaea shouldered two of those runs as earned and went on to retire 11 straight. But the A’s missed scoring opportunity in the seventh flipped into Kyle Tucker’s go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the inning — Murphy was set up outside, but Manaea’s fastball leaked right over the plate.

Manaea left the game with two outs in the seventh having given up just four hits, six strikeouts, no walks and three earned runs — two swings on two mistakes did him in.

Adblock test (Why?)

"back" - Google News
July 08, 2021 at 11:30AM
https://ift.tt/3dTm4ZO

With wasted opportunities, A’s fall 5.5 games back of Astros in loss - Vacaville Reporter
"back" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QNOfxc
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini