In case you missed it, and judging by your comment count, you did, you should read this instead of any game recap I am able to put together. The A's puns rampaging through the game thread were infinitely more interesting than tonight's game. It's not that the A's didn't hit; they had 8 and 2 walks (which those number together coincidentally matched their strikeout total), but it's that they did all the wrong things at all the wrong times, and their lackluster defense, awful execution on the bases and just general air of being bad at baseball just permeated the night.
Where does one even start with this mess? I suppose at the end of the night, when in Rajai Davis' final at-bat of the night, he recorded his 1,000 major league hit. Yay. That was the highlight of the night by a wide, wide margin.
The night did not start out spectacularly well for Triggs; perhaps foreshadowing the troubles that would follow. Three singles mixed in with a line-out opened the game for the Tigers, loading the bases with one out. Triggs induced a double-play from Justin Upton to get out of the inning unscathed, and even managed to put together a one-two-three inning in the second. You knew it was going to be a long night for the A's in the second inning when Khris Davis opened the inning with a "double", and would have been safe had his hand not come up as the tag was held. Replay, of course, ruled against the A's and the first baserunner of the night was erased. Oh don't worry; there will be more to come.
Adam Rosales started out the third with a bang, as his error put a runner on base for the Tigers to open the inning. A single put two runners on with no one out. Triggs was able to strike out Castellanos and get Cabera to line out for the second out, but he wasn't lucky the third time. After Castellanos stole second on Maxwell, Victor Martinez grounded to the shortstop, but unfortunately--as how life is going for the A's these days--the shift had taken away the shortstop and both (unearned) runs scored on the single to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
Maxwell walked with one out in the bottom of the inning, Rosales singled to put two on for the A's, and Rajai Davis singled to load the bases. Unfortunately, Joyce, or "0-5 with the hat trick" as I like to call him, struck out and Lowrie grounded out to end the inning with zero runs. Really; it's the ten strikeouts that are the glaring error in this mess; even when the A's regularly send runners around the carousel, they aren't moving or scoring if the ball isn't put in play.
Onward we go, to the fifth inning, where Rosales and Rajai Davis connected for back-to-back two-out singles to put two more on for "0-5 with the hat trick". Moving right along.
Triggs' otherwise semi-okay night ended in the sixth inning as he allowed a one-out double to Martinez and then forgot his PFP training; missing a ball smoked up the middle. Initial reviews thought it may be an error, but it's been marked as a hit, which means that everything after goes into the earned run column. A walk loaded the bases and set the table for Jim Adduci. He worked a 2-0 count and after Maxwell and Triggs coaxed an even 2-2 count with two sliders for swinging strikes, they threw the slider a third consecutive time. NEVER THROW THE SLIDER A THIRD TIME! or as I like to call it "a three-run, bases-clearing triple to ruin your otherwise-salvageable pitching line".
Down 5-0, the A's looked to the Tigers for help. Lowrie singled to open the inning and a Tigers' error put Khris Davis on, as well. Yonder Alonso singled in the A's first run to continue the rally, but Vogt (K), a Plouffe-up, and Maxwell (K) brought the rally to a screeching halt.
Someone called Josh Smith (not a very good alias, if you ask me) pitched the seventh inning and loaded the bases but got out of the jam, but was not so lucky in the eighth. Adduci doubled to start the inning (probably on another slider), and scored on another Tigers' triple. Then Plouffe got to make another error for the A's, and the A's lost ANOTHER call, as Rajai threw a runner out at second on a sacrifice fly in what appeared to be shade earlier than the run could score from third. But really, does 6-1 or 7-1 matter? It does not. Let's keep drinking.
A Lowrie walk and an Alonso double scored the A's second and final run in the eighth, and Rajai Davis recorded his 1,000 hit in the ninth. There you go. The good, the bad, and it was all ugly.
We do this all over again with Jesse Hahn tomorrow at 6:05PM. We can only hope for better things.