A’s offense draws a blank in 3-0 loss

If you like pitching, today was for you.

Two of the leagues top-five worst offenses in the A’s and Seattle Mariners combined for six hits — four of them singles — Thursday afternoon as pitching ruled the day. Bryan Woo and JP Sears each deserved the victory for their impressive efforts but it’s Sears taking the loss at the end of the day with his offense not capitalizing on the few chances they had.

The Mariners took the game 3-0 to grab the series win as well. The A’s have now lost four straight rubber matches and four straight series, in general.

Opportunities are few and far between against Woo who’s establishing himself as one of the leagues best rising arms. The A’s put their lead-off man on second base in both of the first two innings but both rallies ended empty-handed thanks to some poor situational at-bats.

The Mariners, on the other hand, would take advantage of their early opportunities. They loaded the bases with no outs in the third, and Dylan Moore got the scoring started with a sacrifice fly. Sears would work himself out of the inning with just the one run.

Then in the fourth, Sears thought he was out of the inning harmless with a runner on second, two outs and two strikes when his changeup barely nicked the bottom of the zone. Instead the pitch was called a ball and Mitch Garver dumped the next one he saw to left to extend the lead to 2-0.

With one out in the fifth, Tyler Soderstrom smacked a single to right field to end an 0-20 stretch at the dish. It also snapped ten straight batters retired by Woo, but a Zack Gelof strikeout and Max Schuemann flyout ended the A’s rally promptly again.

It’s a shame the A’s couldn’t do anything offensively because they spoiled a gem from Sears. He went six strong while allowing just three hits and the two runs but striking out eight. He continues his career excellence pitching against the Mariners, the same team that drafted him in 2017.

Outdueling Sears, however, was the Bay Area native Woo. He also went six strong but allowed two hits, no runs, no walks and struck out six. He’s gone 21.1 scoreless innings against the A’s in his career now.

After Sears departure, Dany Jimenez did a nice job of keeping the score within arms reach over 1.2 relief innings. The Mariners went nearly a full three innings without recording a hit until Garver added an insurance run in the ninth with a solo blast to left center.

The A’s offensive effort was worse and one of their poorest of the season as they tallied just two hits. Their last 14 hitters were all retired as well as the A’s last hit of the game was the Soderstrom fifth inning single.

The A’s will welcome the Toronto Blue Jays into town tomorrow for a three-game series as Luis Medina gets the rock in game one. Medina impressed in his first start of the season Sunday in Atlanta allowing just two hits over 5.2 innings. He’ll be countered by Toronto’s Chris Bassitt, a familiar friend to the A’s as he spent six seasons in Oakland from 2015-2021. First pitch tomorrow is slated for 6:40 PM PDT.