MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

This four-game series against the Anaheim Angels was a tale of two teams. Rookie starter Gage Jump continued an amazing start to his career, and the team managed a comeback for the ages, but then the next two games showed Athletics pitching as one of the most-unstable staff’s in baseball.

(Athletics: 5-0)
 The Athletics sent eleven batters to the plate, to open the series, and “61-Jump Street” went seven innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball, for their fourth shutout of the season.

Zack Gelof extended his hitting streak to 22-games by opening the game with a single, and Nick Kurtz doubled off the wall to get two aboard with nobody out.

Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom went back-to-back home runs to put the A’s up 4-0, and a Henry Bolte sac-fly scored the final run of the game, eight batters into the Thursday night game.

Jump (3-1, 2.37) struck out seven, and his zero earned runs is the second time having done so, in just five career starts. He started the outing using a lot of fastballs, and moved to using his slider as his out-pitch the second time through the lineup. As he navigated the sixth and seventh, Jump went to a nasty curve to maintain surprise to the Angels hitters.

Relievers Mason Barnett and Hogan Harris allowed two runners in both the eighth and ninth innings but sprinkled in four strikeouts to preserve the series opening win for the Athletics.

(Athletics: 12-11)
Nick Kurtz shook off four-consecutive strikeouts, and drew a walk with bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th-inning, and the A’s scored eight straight runs to win 12-11.

Lawrence Butler homered in the 3rd-inning to start the scoring off, and the A’s added three more in the fourth to go up 4-0.

Starter Jeffrey Springs cruised through the first three innings with little issue, but completely melted down in another “INNING” from hell in the fourth. The line: <walk, double, RBI-sac fly, HR, walk, walk, HR>, before Justin Sterner relieved Springs, and allowed another solo-home run for a 7-4 deficit.

He stayed for the 5th-inning and gave up a 3-run bomb, and Jose Suarez allowed a solo-shot in the sixth to put the A’s in an 11-4 hole before the momentum shifted back to the A’s.

Two-run home runs by Jacob Wilson and Jeff McNeil, and a clutch 2-out bottom of the 9th-inning shot by backup catcher Jonah Heim helped make up a seven-run deficit, before Kurtz’s dramatic finish.

Reliever Scott Barlow had a 1-2-3, two strikeout 8th-inning, and Elvis Alvarado (3-1, 5.00) pitched the final two innings for the win.

(Angels: 7-0)
The bats went quiet for the Athletics Saturday, and JT Ginn struggled by getting behind (2-0) to eight Angels hitters in 5 1/3 innings, in the 7-0 shutout loss. Five different Athletics had two strikeouts, and none had more than one-hit, for yet another laid-egg when the team could have taken the series. 

Scott Barlow allowed: <single, RBI-double, RBI-double> to increase the deficit to 6-0, and was unceremoniously DFA’d after the game, while career minor-leaguer Geoff Hartlieb went the final three innings for the A’s, allowing just a Denzer Guzman solo-shot for the final 7-0 score,

(Angels: 9-7)
Similar to the opener, the A’s sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times in the first inning. Kurtz had an RBI-single in the 4th-inning that drove in Gelof, who increased his hitting streak to 25 games, tops in MLB. Kurtz later hit a 2-run homer in the seventh but it wasn’t enough for the Athletics in the loss.

Like in the Pirates finale where the relievers allowed six earned runs, Hogan Harris gave up a 3-run bomb to Guzman in the eighth and Elvis Alvarado lost the game allowing a 2-run home run to Zach Neto in the top of the ninth.

Athletics starter Jack Perkins lasted just five innings with four earned runs but looked a lot better than in recent starts. Perkins struck out the side in the third and had eight total in the game to continue to improve his control.

Next: @ Giants 6/23 645pm pst Oracle Park, San Francisco Ca