Game #44: A’s win game 10-5 but lose Triggs

The A’s claimed the victory in game one of this four-game series, outscoring the Toronto Blue Jays ten runs to five.

*** Click here to revisit tonight’s Game Thread! ***

This would be good news was damped by the loss of yet another A’s pitcher in Andrew Triggs. Triggs seemed alright through two innings — allowing one run on one hit — and after walking Josh Donaldson (there’s no shame in that!) with one out in the second inning, there was a mound visit. Triggs has what has been deemed a forearm nerve issue.

That can’t be a good sign. It never is, and the A’s have already lost both Jharel Cotton and top prospect A.J. Puck to Tommy John surgery. Next Blackburn went down and now Triggs. Manaea and also Cahill are solid. Yet for their third starter A’s are literally down to relying on Brett Anderson to do two things and quite honestly, I don’t think either are possible. They hope Anderson will ....

1. Stay healthy (um .....)
2. Pitch well, not just decently, but very well, almost like in his performance in the 2012 ALDS.

The A’s used four relievers in the game: Santiago Casilla, Yusmeiro Petit, Ryan Dull and Lou Trivino. Of course Casilla was the one who pretty much blew the performance of the bullpen with his first pitch. Casilla went two innings and allowed three runs on three hits. Petit was solid as always and, is it just me or is this a different Dull? Trivino took over Dull’s mess with two on and two out. He allowed a single to Richard Urena and then walked a run in by walking Curtis Granderson (again, but not as much as JD, I’d have to say there’s not real shame in that either), making the score 9-5. Trivino was working with a strike zone I’m not sure any A’s fan would accept! I’m telling you guys I love this kid and I think he’s going to be very successful in his career.

See what I mean?

But what really made this game was the performance of Khris Davis — he went 4-4 and reached base five times! That’s an insanely great performance and he did it in the manner he usually does, quietly and effectively. It’s, at least for me, like you notice the home run and another good hit but you are not really thinking about how well he was actually doing overall.

As usual the A’s offense was hot. In the third Matt Joyce got it going with a single, that was followed by a Jed Lowrie double and a Krush Davis three-run bomb. These were all off of Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez, former All-Star and also the loser of this contest.

The A’s scored four more off of Blue Jays reliever Seunghwan Oh. This time it was a single off the bat of Khris Davis, a towering shot to right by Matt Olson making the score 5-1. A double by Matt Chapman and an RBI single from Dustin Fowler, made the score 7-1 in favor of the A’s. The A’s got two more in the sixth on a Khris Davis HBP and Chapman a two-run monster shot to right field. The A’s added on a little insurance in the 9th, on a pair of singles by Marcus Semien and Matt Joyce.

The final score was 10-5 but it was a much more entertaining than the score even suggests. Whenever Toronto tried to fight their way back in against the A’s bullpen, Oakland’s lineup responded immediately with more insurance runs. It’s very unfortunate that in the process the A’s lost another starting pitcher (to which I would say “I’m very sorry Andrew, but at least it wasn’t Sean Manaea” — KIDDING! I’m kidding, I wouldn’t say that! — well maybe not to his face but I know you are all thinking it too!). It’s been a long night and we’ve all got another A’s — Jays game to watch tomorrow!!

Let’s Go Oakland!