![\"\"](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png\")
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By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n
At 49-79, the Athletics are officially the worst team in baseball, and after this series I am convinced that this is one of the worst A\u2019s teams this century. The team mailed in, at-bat after at-bat, to the tune of EIGHTEEN 1-2-3 innings at the plate, of which 14 of the Athletics were retired in less than 12-pitches.<\/p>\n
On the mound, the A\u2019s used relievers Mason Barnett and Brady Basso as starters which pulled a good arm in Basso from the bullpen, weakening it, and Barnett had no business being a starter in the first place.<\/p>\n
Throw in the usual questionable decisions on bullpen usage by Manager Mark Kotsay, and we get a four-game sweep of the Athletics.<\/p>\n
(Royals: 9-5)
\nJeff McNeil hit the first pitch of the series, for a home run and a 1-0 lead, but the Royals crushed A\u2019s starter Mason Barnett for six earned runs, in just 2 2\/3 innings. The Royals Bobby Witt Jr. doubled, and homered with three RBIs to lead the heart of the Royals order, who went 6-for-14 with five runs and six runs-batted-in.<\/p>\n
Barnett (L 1-4, 7.08) had given up ten earned runs in his previous 8 1\/3 (2 starts), and he was demoted to AAA Las Vegas after the game.<\/p>\n
(Royals: 4-3)
\nReliever Brady Basso and usual starter Jack Perkins combined for six innings of scoreless baseball, but in typical A\u2019s fashion, the bullpen melted down.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s built a 3-1 lead going into the ninth inning, beginning with Tommy White\u2019s RBI-single in the first inning, and getting two additional runs in the sixth inning on an RBI single by McNeil, and a Max Muncy bases loaded walk.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s reliever Hogan Harris (L 3-2, 3.79) gave up a pair of singles and a walk, for his sixth blown save of the year and the loss.<\/p>\n
(Royals: 9-7)
\nThe Athletics took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, but a combination of horrible relief pitching and bad decisions by Kotsay, manifested into another runaway inning to the tune of seven runs.
\nStarter Jeffrey Springs returned from IL and pitched a decent 5 2\/3 innings, giving up just two earned runs before turning it over to the pen.
\nMcNeil continued to shred with an RBI-double in the first, which was followed by a Zack Gelof single and a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s scored three runs in the fifth, on RBI-singles by Henry Bolte, another from McNeil, and a Gelof RBI-groundout, to what was thought to be a comfortable lead.<\/p>\n
Elvis Alvarado pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning for the Athletics, on just 10-pitches, but Kotsay didn\u2019t take advantage of a hot arm and pulled him for Hayden Juenger.<\/p>\n
Juenger gave up three runs, and Drew Rom gave up four more, to allow seven runs in the eighth, and a 9-5 lead.<\/p>\n
Max Muncy hit a 2-run blast in the ninth inning but it wasn\u2019t enough in the 9-7 loss. Muncy led five Athletics with two hits.<\/p>\n
(Royals: 6-2)
\nAthletics starter Gage Jump was not himself on Thursday, giving up runs in all but one inning that he pitched. He gave up a solo-homer to Witt Jr. in the first inning, which preceded two runs in the third, and two more an inning later.<\/p>\n
Jump (L 5-8, 4.83) has been known for getting hitters down 0-2 in the count, and managed just two in his entire start. Twelve of the twenty-three batters he faced reached base, and he was visibly struggling his entire start.<\/p>\n
The Athletics bullpen pitched four innings of one-run baseball, and A\u2019s fans got to see newly acquired Taylor Rashi, who was claimed off waivers from the Minnesota Twins. Rashi pitched two innings of one-run ball, before Scott Blewett finished the final two innings of scoreless relief.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s managed just two fifth inning runs, one run on a Brian Serven RBI-single, and another on an RBI-groundout by Donovan Walton.<\/p>\n
Next: @ Astros 8\/21 510pm PST Daikin Park Houston, Tx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tim Byrnes At 49-79, the Athletics are officially the worst team in baseball, and after this series I am convinced that this is one of the worst A\u2019s teams this century. The team mailed in, at-bat after at-bat, to the tune of EIGHTEEN 1-2-3 innings at the plate, of which 14 of the Athletics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11059],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98030"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98035,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98030\/revisions\/98035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}