A’s offense silent in 4-0 loss to Marlins

The Oakland Athletics were unable to generate any offense Friday night in a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins.

Shintaro Fujinami got the start as the opener and didn’t have any trouble getting through the first two hitters as Luis Arraez and Jorge Soler both popped out. He jumped ahead of Bryan De La Cruz 0-2 in the count, before he served a single to right. That would prove costly as Jesus Sanchez jumped on a first pitch fastball and drove it into the bullpen in left for a two-run home run to give Miami an early lead.

As planned, Fujinami gave way to rookie left-hander Hogan Harris who mowed down the Marlins in the second including back-to-back strikeouts of Jon Berti and Jacob Stallings.

Miami starter Edward Cabrera blew through the A’s lineup over the first two innings. Brent Rooker singled with two outs in the first, but Seth Brown went down swinging to leave him stranded. Cabrera retired the side in order in the second and then struck out Shea Langeliers to begin the third. Tony Kemp worked a one out walk and stole second to get himself into scoring position. He moved to third on a ground out by Esteury Ruiz, but was left stranded when Ryan Noda was called out on strikes.

Harris added two more strikeouts in a perfect third, including one of Luis Arraez who entered the game with just 10 strikeouts all season.

Harris struck out five of the first seven hitters he faced before Sanchez dumped a single to left field with one out in the fourth. Yuli Gurriel followed with another single to put runners at first and second. Both runners moved up 90 feet on a ground out by Jean Segura and Harris got Berti to ground out to short to leave the runners stranded.

JJ Bleday led off the fifth with a double down the right field line, however Cabrera retired the next three hitters in a row to squander the opportunity.

Miami added on against Harris in the fifth as Stallings led off the inning with a single and then came around to score on a two-out double by Soler. De La Cruz brought home another run with a single to right to extend the lead to 4-0.

Some aggressive base running didn’t pay off for the A’s in the sixth. Ruiz reached on an infield single and then took off for second as Cabrera’s throw sailed wide of first. Ruiz kept trucking to third, but was thrown out by Sanchez from right field. The mistake immediately hurt as Noda singled to right. Cabrera came right back though and struck out Rooker and Brown to end the inning.

Harris was replaced by Austin Pruitt to start the seventh. It was another good outing for Harris who allowed five hits and two runs over five innings. He struck out five while throwing 86 pitches.

Oakland managed just two baserunners over the final three innings against Miami’s bullpen. The A’s finished the game with just five hits and struck out 15 times. They left six men on base and were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Oakland drops to 12-47 for the season. The series will continue Saturday with Luis Medina matching up against Eury Perez.