MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

How are you gonna win a series when your starters give up 17 earned runs in fifteen innings?

The answer is you don’t.

It is a very Athletics thing to do, to go 9-4 and lose a series, to an inferior opponent, at home. After winning the series versus Houston, the Yankees, the Mets, and splitting with the Rangers, the A’s were glad to be continuing a homestand.

However, A’s starter Aaron Civale had a poor outing, and just like Sunday’s starter Jeffrey Springs, allowed the first batter to get aboard with a double. Two batters later he scored on another double, and the pattern began. Every inning was a series of back-to-back singles that had Civale in trouble all outing. Three consecutive singles to start the 3rd inning, made it 3-0 before the A’s broke through.

Bats were silent as it took just 20 pitches to drop the first nine A’s batters, but a Shea Langeliers double, followed by an RBI-single by Nick Kurtz got the A’s on the board. Other than a run in the eighth, created off a walk, the A’s were stumped.

After giving up a single and a double in the 5th ended Civale’s day, Elvis Alvarado allowed both to score, giving up a double of his own. He went on to load the bases in the 7th, and gave up a grand slam to Munetaka Murakami, who homered three times on the weekend, and the A’s lost 9-2.

A’s exacted revenge Saturday, coming from a 5-0 deficit, to steal the middle game from Chicago. Starter Luis Severino allowed five earned runs in five innings, giving up a pair of home runs in the 2nd inning. Colson Montgomery connected for a solo-shot and Andrew Benintendi hit a 3-run dinger to have the A’s down 5-0, but they didn’t fold.

Jacob Wilson answered with a solo-shot of his own in the bottom half, and like the second run Friday night, a Lawrence Butler walk was “small-balled” into another run. Butler went on to reach four times and steal two bases, to be a menace all game.

Small-ball again, Austin Wynns scored after drawing a walk and being moved along in the fifth inning, to draw to within 5-3.

In the sixth, Max Muncy tripled and Jeff McNeil had an RBI-Sac Fly to get within one run. However, reliever Hogan Harris gave the run right back in the seventh, when he served up a solo-shot to Murakami.

In the bottom half of the seventh, following a Langeliers single that was 110+ off the bat, Kurtz launched his second home run of the year, 115.1mph himself, and tied the game.

Both teams had runners in scoring position but couldn’t break through until the bottom of the 11th inning.

Jacob Wilson was the runner placed on second base due to extra innings, and Denzel Clarke moved him to third on a sacrifice-bunt. The game ended 7-6 when Muncy hit the sac-fly smallball RBI, for the game-winning run.

The finale was a train-wreck for 3-0 starter Jeffrey Springs Sunday, when he gave up seven earned runs, by allowing four home runs.
Home runs by Derrick Hill and Miguel Vargas had the lead at 4-0 until the A’s Darryl Hernaiz hit his own solo home run.

Things stayed the same until the fifth when Springs again went off the rails. After a single, Murakami hit a 2-run shot, and in spite of having 72 career at-bats, chose a 7-second viewing on his handiwork. I expected a shot to the thigh was in order, but the Athletics took the high-road.

To add insult to injury Colson Montgomery homered again three batters later, to increase the lead to 7-1.

Not giving up, the A’s pushed three runs across in the seventh, with a Soderstrom double, an amazing 12-pitch walk by Hernaiz, and a Gelof 2-rbi double. Gelof took third on the throw and scored on a wild pitch to end the scoring at 7-4.

This was the first series loss since the opening road trip of the season and look to rebound tonight in Seattle, where they will take on the Mariners at 6:40pm PST.