By Tim Byrnes
The Athletics are in a freefall, getting swept for the second consecutive series, and there isn’t a superhero coming to save this team. The Tigers disassembled the power of the A’s bats and brushed aside their pitching the entire series. For the franchise the All-Star Break can’t arrive fast enough and barring a massive trade there isn’t help coming.
(Tigers: 6-2)
Being 11-19 in series openers tells you the level of focus the A’s have shown this season. The amount of 1-2-3 innings in under 12-pitches for the A’s bats is astonishing and they haven’t led in a game in well over 40 consecutive innings.
Facing Tariq Skubal didn’t help the cause either as he forced nine (0-2) counts, struck out nine batters, and every pitch in his arsenal was met with swing-and-misses. The A’s top of the order (Zack Gelof, Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers) combined to go just 2-for-13 with eight strikeouts and without the punch of the A’s two All-Star starters, this lineup is impotent.
Skubal went five innings, allowing only one earned run, a solo-home run by Henry Bolte to open the third inning. Bolte scored the only other Athletics run in the seventh when after being hit-by-pitch Langeliers had an RBI-single.
Athletics starter JT Ginn was down 2-0 just five pitches in which is a pattern that all starters for the A’s have exhibited. They come out flat before settling in and Ginn did just that, scattering base-traffic but getting through it unscathed.
Ginn (7-5, 3.10) was pulled in the fifth inning for reliever Jacob Lopez due to a flu which Kurtz also contracted a game later.
Lopez went off the rails in the sixth giving up a walk, single, double, double, single, to the tune of four runs, with pitching coach Scott Emerson disinterested in settling the reliever down. With a 5.12 Team ERA, and these “EMERKOT” innings happening nearly every game now, a valid question is: “how does Emerson still have a job?”
Recently promoted from AAA, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (JKG) was the lone bright spot for the A’s going 3-for-4 with a double.
(Tigers: 6-1)
Press repeat and you have Wednesday’s 6-1 Detroit win in a nutshell. Like Skubal, Troy Melton struck out nine Athletics, doing so in just 5 1/3 innings and allowing just four hits. Melton also made quick work of the top of the A’s order of (Gelof, Kurtz, Langeliers) holding them to 0 for 10 with four strikeouts.
After a four-strikeout day in the opener, Gelof went 0 for 5 with three more strikeouts and you have to wonder if getting spiked by the Giants Matt Chapman has had lingering effects. Gelof went down with a knee injury sliding into foul territory in the finale continuing his season of random injuries.
Athletics starter Jeffrey Springs added to his MLB-leading “home runs allowed” statistics, giving up two more among the six hits in the loss. Springs (3-9, 6.08) has allowed six earned runs in four of his last five starts and now has given up 26 home runs this season.
Kuroda-Grauer continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 again, and was hitting .500 since being promoted for the Dodgers Series.
(Tigers: 4-1)
Framber Valdez didn’t want to be left out of the Detroit domination as he struck out nine Athletics and allowed only one earned run over his seven-inning gem. He struck out the side to open the game and never looked back as even Kuroda-Grauer was held in check, going 0-for-4.
The A’s were held to a hit by pitch of Langeliers through four innings and never really threatened in the game. The lone Athletics run was as pedestrian as it gets: an RBI-groundout driving in Jacob Wilson, who singled to break up the no-hit bid to start the fifth inning.
Jose Suarez pitched to the first four Tigers, retiring all four before turning the game over to Jack Perkins. Perkins (2-5, 6.87) gave up two home runs and three earned runs to take the loss.
The A’s were powerless in the series with only four extra-base-hits (3-2B, HR) the entire series and couldn’t get to the ASB fast enough.
Next: 7/10 4:40pm PST Rate Field, Chicago Illinois
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ASB?