![\"\"](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png\")
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By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n
The Athletics came into San Diego having lost three of the last four series and the AL West was bunching up. They continue to struggle in series openers, and with a 7-3 loss Friday the A\u2019s lost the eleventh \u201cgame 1\u201d in 17 series. A 2-0 shutout Saturday secured another series loss for the team but they rebounded with a solid 5-2 win in the finale and returned home with a winning road trip.<\/p>\n
(Padres: 7-3)
\nThe Athletics moved Carlos Cortes to leadoff and it has produced instant results. Cortes singled and Nick Kurtz doubled him in for a quick 1-0 lead, just five pitches in. A Brent Rooker groundout scored Kurtz, giving them a 2-0 lead but the Padres answered just as fast.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s starter Jeffrey Springs gave the lead up when he walked Fernando Tatis Jr, and Manny Machado homered to tie the game 2-2.<\/p>\n
Zack Gelof doubled to open the fourth inning, and scored on a Henry Bolte RBI-single, but that would be it for the scoring for the green-and-gold.<\/p>\n
San Diego tied it up on a Nick Castellanos solo home run in the fifth and took the lead when former Athletics center fielder Ramon Laureano had his own bases-empty bomb for a 4-3 lead.<\/p>\n
Springs (3-5, 4.11) was pulled for reliever Jack Perkins, who completely melted down in the eighth inning. Perkins allowed four singles in just 7-pitches and three eventually scored to complete a 7-3 blowout loss.<\/p>\n
(Padres: 2-0)
\n\u201cCopy and Paste\u201d was the middle game in this series, beginning with Cortes at leadoff. Cortes and Kurtz both singled to begin the game but watched as the heart of the order left them on base.<\/p>\n
This was the theme of the entire game, as the A\u2019s were 0-7 with RISP, and left eight runners on base. Padres starter Lucas Giolito only went five innings and issued five walks and five hits, but the A\u2019s couldn\u2019t put a rally together like much of the series opener.<\/p>\n
The Padres bullpen is much more than just former A\u2019s closer Mason Miller as four relievers pitched four innings of 1-hit scoreless relief and secured the 2-0 shutout.<\/p>\n
Athletics starter JT Ginn issued six walks in just 2 2\/3 innings, and while he held San Diego hitless, two of those walks scored.<\/p>\n
Ginn (2-3, 3.19) walked the bases loaded in the second and then hit Tatis with a 94-mph fastball to put the Padres up 1-0.<\/p>\n
In the third inning, Ginn had his sixth full count become his sixth walk and Manager Mark Kotsay pulled him for reliever Jose Suarez. Suarez gave up an RBI-double to Jackson Merrill to make it 2-0 and that was where it would stay.<\/p>\n
Suarez settled down to have a 1-2-3 fourth and fifth innings, with four strikeouts, to start a solid showing by the bullpen. Joel Kuhnel had two scoreless innings and Scott Barlow one for a solid relief effort in the loss.<\/p>\n
(Athletics: 5-2)
\nCortes hit his first leadoff home run of his career, and the A\u2019s should consider leaving him in that spot with his outstanding approach to his at-bats.<\/p>\n
Against tough starter Michael King, the A\u2019s didn\u2019t let up and scored twice in the second inning as well.<\/p>\n
It began when Gelof drew a one out walk, and Bolte\u2019s RBI-double brought him home. Newcomer Alika Williams followed with his first hit in A\u2019s gear for an RBI-single, and a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Jonah Heim doubled to open the fourth inning and King then walked Jeff McNeil and Bolte to load the bases. King then threw a wild pitch to score Heim from third base. He later loaded them up with a walk to Cortes but the A\u2019s failed to score any more runs that inning.<\/p>\n
Luis Medina took the mound for the A\u2019s in the first but was in to get through the top of the order for Jacob Lopez. Lopez (4-2, 5.73) went 4 2\/3 innings, allowing just one earned run in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
Justin Sterner allowed a solo home run to South Hills’ own Ty France in the seventh inning to get within 4-2 but a ninth inning Tyler Soderstrom RBI-single put the game out of reach. Barlow later earned his first save.<\/p>\n
Next: Today Seattle 6:40pst, Sutter Health Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tim Byrnes The Athletics came into San Diego having lost three of the last four series and the AL West was bunching up. They continue to struggle in series openers, and with a 7-3 loss Friday the A\u2019s lost the eleventh \u201cgame 1\u201d in 17 series. A 2-0 shutout Saturday secured another series loss […]<\/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-96623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96623"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96631,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96623\/revisions\/96631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}