![\"\"](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png\")
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By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n
\u201cTHE INNING\u201d…
\nThe results of the series against the New York Yankees this weekend, is irrelevant. The fact that the Athletics managed to win just one game during the entire homestand doesn\u2019t matter. If you want to know the status of the Athletics as an Organization, you need just look at \u201cThe Inning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Athletics have habits though and it begins with losing the opening game of the series.<\/p>\n
(Yankees: 8-2)
\nThe Athletics (6-13) record in series-openers is the result of low-energy and bad pitching from the starting rotation. Starter Luis Severino balked after a Nick Kurtz throwing error put Ben Rice aboard and Aaron Judge\u2019s RBI single put the Yankees up 1-0.<\/p>\n
Cody Bellinger singled and Paul Goldschmidt homered to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead before the A\u2019s even stepped to the plate.<\/p>\n
Severino (L 2-6, 4.16) took himself out in the second inning and was put on the 15-day IL after the game. The A\u2019s were forced to use seven relievers from the already gassed bullpen and New York finished the game scoring single runs in the second, third, fourth and seventh innings on the way to an 8-2 loss.<\/p>\n
Scoring for the Athletics was a solo home run by Kurtz in the first inning, and an RBI single by Zack Gelof in the ninth for another uninspiring day at the plate.<\/p>\n
(Athletics: 6-4)
\nThe Athletics homered in the first inning for the second game in a row when, following a Kurtz single, Shea Langeliers hit a two-run bomb over 109 MPH off-the-bat, 426 feet. The team would go on to hit two more home runs, a solo-shot by Tyler Soderstrom in the sixth inning, and Kurtz\u2019 two run homer in the seventh.<\/p>\n
Starter JT Ginn has become the ace of the rotation, with 3\/5 of the Athletics starters no longer in West Sacramento. Ginn (W 3-3, 2.87) scattered four hits over six innings, allowing just one unearned run, taking the only victory for the A\u2019s on the homestand.<\/p>\n
Hogan Harris had a busy but scoreless seventh, and Justin Sterner had a 1-2-3 eighth inning before handing the mound over to Jack Perkins.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the A\u2019s managed an insurance run on a Gelof RBI single to make it a 6-1 lead going into the final inning.<\/p>\n
What may have been a foreshadowing of \u201cThe Inning\u201d, Perkins gave up a single, and two walks, to load the bases in the ninth. He had a May ERA north of 9.00 and Manager Mark Kotsay saw the writing on the wall, so despite there being two outs, Kotsay went with Scott Barlow.
\nBarlow proceeded to walk Ben Rice, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger to make the game 6-4 before finally retiring the final out.<\/p>\n
(Yankees: 13-8)
\nWe could talk about Rooker having a home run, and a double; or Kurtz having a single, a double, and reaching base four times. We could talk about backup catcher Jonah Heim homering in superstar Langelier’s absence, driving in three runs.<\/p>\n
None of it matters, because I present to you \u201cThe Inning\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n
With starter Jacob Lopez on the mound, the pinstripes lineup went: Single, (stolen base), walk, walk, and they had a mound visit by Heim to try to settle the A\u2019s starter down. It didn\u2019t work and the Yankees went single, double, single, single before Kotsay had seen enough of Lopez.<\/p>\n
Lopez (L 4-3,6.75) lasted just two innings bringing the rotation’s total-innings-pitched to an anemic nine innings for the entire series.<\/p>\n
Reliever Mike Kelly was an odd choice to stop the bleeding because there were still no outs and bases were loaded. New York pressed unpause: Walk, single, (double steal), single, (stolen base), double, walk\u2026all before recording an out! A two-run triple, and two singles later the score was 13-3 before the inning mercifully ended.<\/p>\n
(13 runs, 11 hits, 4 walks, 4 steals)
\nMultiple Yankees reached twice in the inning: Volpe had two singles, Austin Wells walked twice, Ben Rice doubled and tripled, Bellinger singled twice, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n
The rest of the bullpen retired 18-of-19 to stop the bleeding, and the Athletics scored five more runs, but too little too late.<\/p>\n
Next: @ Cubs 6\/2 5:05pm Wrigley Field Chicago, Illinois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tim Byrnes \u201cTHE INNING\u201d… The results of the series against the New York Yankees this weekend, is irrelevant. The fact that the Athletics managed to win just one game during the entire homestand doesn\u2019t matter. If you want to know the status of the Athletics as an Organization, you need just look at \u201cThe […]<\/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-96770","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\/96770","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=96770"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96773,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96770\/revisions\/96773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}