MidValleySports.Com

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 3rd-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 contracts, a game later.

Lopez went off the rails in the sixth, giving up <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 0/5 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, 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 HBP 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, three earned runs, and took 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 440pm PST Rate Field, Chicago Illinois