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At least the Oakland A’s didn’t blow a save again.
The A’s lost their fourth straight game Tuesday afternoon, this time 5-1 to the Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum. Oakland fell behind early and never recovered, which was a change in script after three days of dramatic last-minute defeats but with the same unfortunate result.
*** Click here to revisit today’s Game Thread! ***
It started out well, just like each of the previous three losses. In the 1st inning, consecutive singles by Starling Marte, Matt Olson, and Mitch Moreland plated a run to give the A’s an early lead.
Mitch drives in Marte to give the A's an early lead pic.twitter.com/FKJteIbZqD
— The Rickey Henderson of Blogs (@RickeyBlog) August 24, 2021
Unfortunately, Oakland never scored again. That one run was all they got for the day, and this afternoon that slim lead was only enough to last a few minutes until the top of the 2nd inning.
In the 2nd, A’s starter Cole Irvin allowed a few hard hits for one run. In the 3rd, he allowed a few more hard hits for two runs. Then he exited “partially due to a hip issue,” per insider Martin Gallegos.
- Irvin: 3 ip, 3 runs, 0 Ks, 2 BB, 7 hits, 66 pitches, 90.6 mph EV
The bullpen effectively put in a quality start after that, going six innings with two runs. Deolis Guerra delivered three nearly perfect frames, retiring nine of his 10 batters including five strikeouts. A.J. Puk struck out four of his first six batters, before letting Seattle rally for two runs. Yusmeiro Petit and Burch Smith cleaned up the rest.
The insurance runs off Puk in the 8th inning helped put the game out of reach, but Oakland’s offense didn’t put up a fight anyway. From the 2nd inning on they never even reached third base, and they only made it as far as second base once in the 7th and then again with two outs in the 9th.
The A’s have scored 27 runs total over their last 10 games. They’ve lost eight of those games.
Tailspin
There’s more than a month to go, and the postseason is still within reach. But the A’s are falling quickly, with everything going wrong at once. The lineup isn’t hitting, the rotation is losing steam, and the bullpen is showing cracks. Can they turn it around in time?
Bob Melvin: "We're putting too much pressure on every facet that we have right now. It was a tough stretch we went through. We did not look good today. We have to flip the switch and start playing like we do. This is the wrong time to go into a team slump. We'll figure it out."
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 24, 2021
