![\"\"](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png\")
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By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n
The Athletics are in a freefall, getting swept for the second consecutive series, and there isn\u2019t a superhero coming to save this team. The Tigers disassembled the power of the A\u2019s bats and brushed aside their pitching the entire series. For the franchise the All-Star Break can\u2019t arrive fast enough and barring a massive trade there isn\u2019t help coming.<\/p>\n
(Tigers: 6-2)
\nBeing 11-19 in series openers tells you the level of focus the A\u2019s have shown this season. The amount of 1-2-3 innings in under 12-pitches for the A\u2019s bats is astonishing and they haven\u2019t led in a game in well over 40 consecutive innings.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s two All-Star starters, this lineup is impotent.<\/p>\n
Skubal went five innings, allowing only one earned run, a solo-home run by Henry Bolte to open the third inning. Bolte scored the only other Athletics run in the seventh when after being hit-by-pitch Langeliers had an RBI-single.<\/p>\n
Athletics starter JT Ginn was down 2-0 just five pitches in which is a pattern that all starters for the A\u2019s have exhibited. They come out flat before settling in and Ginn did just that, scattering base-traffic but getting through it unscathed.<\/p>\n
Ginn (7-5, 3.10) was pulled in the fifth inning for reliever Jacob Lopez due to a flu which Kurtz also contracted a game later.<\/p>\n
Lopez went off the rails in the sixth giving up a 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 \u201cEMERKOT\u201d innings happening nearly every game now, a valid question is: \u201chow does Emerson still have a job?\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently promoted from AAA, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (JKG) was the lone bright spot for the A\u2019s going 3-for-4 with a double.<\/p>\n
(Tigers: 6-1)
\nPress repeat and you have Wednesday\u2019s 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\u2019s order of (Gelof, Kurtz, Langeliers) holding them to 0 for 10 with four strikeouts.<\/p>\n
After a four-strikeout day in the opener, Gelof went 0 for 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.<\/p>\n
Athletics starter Jeffrey Springs added to his MLB-leading \u201chome runs allowed\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Kuroda-Grauer continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 again, and was hitting .500 since being promoted for the Dodgers Series.<\/p>\n
(Tigers: 4-1)
\nFramber Valdez didn\u2019t want to be left out of the Detroit domination as he 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.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s were held to a hit by pitch 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.<\/p>\n
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 and three earned runs to take the loss.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Next: 7\/10 4:40pm PST Rate Field, Chicago Illinois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tim Byrnes The Athletics are in a freefall, getting swept for the second consecutive series, and there isn\u2019t a superhero coming to save this team. The Tigers disassembled the power of the A\u2019s bats and brushed aside their pitching the entire series. For the franchise the All-Star Break can\u2019t arrive fast enough and barring […]<\/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-97332","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\/97332","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=97332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97335,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97332\/revisions\/97335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}