Athletics fall to Blue Jays 7-3

The A’s dropped the second game of the series today at the Rogers Center, losing an afternoon game to the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3.

Righty Shintaro Fujinami got the ball to start the game with the hope of a quick 1-2-3 first inning before making way for the bulk pitcher. The Fuji struggles instead continued as Toronto jumped on him right away with a single and double. Both of those runners came around to score and Fujinami didn’t even manage to finish the inning. Left-handed rookie Hogan Harris, who was planning to come in after the first, instead was pressed into the game and got the final out of the inning. Not the best start for the team.

It didn’t take long for Oakland to start scoring themselves. Right fielder Seth Brown took the second pitch he saw from Jays’ starter Jose Berrios and mashed it over the center field fence to cut the lead in half, his fifth home run of the season:

After that, the Blue Jays came back and put more distance between themselves and the A’s. Two hits and a walk loaded the bases for the Jays and a Hogan Harris HBP brought in an easy run for Toronto. A strikeout of former Athletic Matt Chapman got the A’s out of the frame but they’d given back a run.

And again, the A’s got a run right back. After Tony Kemp got plunked, Ryan Noda came up to bat and doubled into the right field gap, allowing Kemp to come around and score, again making it a one-run game. On the down side Noda was thrown out at third trying for a triple. To make it worse JJ Bleday followed with a single that probably would have brought Noda in. Dang.

And yet again, Toronto struck right back when their #8 hitter Danny Jansen swatted a 2-run home run to extend the lead in the third. A walk and double put two more runners in scoring position but another well timed Harris strikeout ended the inning. Toronto was all over the pitching early.

And then it was quiet over the next couple innings as both teams’ offenses finally cooled down. Oakland got the scoring started back up with a little help from the Toronto defense and Tyler Wade just sneaking a ball up the middle with two outs, bringing in Jace Peterson to make it a 2-run deficit.

And then yet again, Toronto struck back immediately. Austin Pruitt came on in relief with one on and one out in the sixth and surrendered a 2-run home run to Vlad Jr., doubling the Jays’ lead late.

Oakland rallied a bit in the ninth with two leadoff singles but ultimately couldn’t bring either of them around to score. The game ended with Ryan Noda striking out, sealing Oakland’s 59th loss of the year.

Another loss in a tough year. Not a whole lot went right today. The pitching got knocked around for 7 runs and 12 hits while the bats only managed three runs on eight hits. On the plus side of things, the A’s can still win the series tomorrow with a W in the final game of the road trip. It’ll be Luis Medina facing off against Yusei Kikuchi early tomorrow morning.