OAKLAND — Mathematically, the A’s aren’t out of the postseason chase, but spiritually they looked it in their third straight loss to the Seattle Mariners.
Looking uninspired, the A’s lost 4-1 to the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 4,100 at the Coliseum.
“They only thing that’s missing is winning,” Matt Chapman said, tipping his cap to the Mariners’ fight and preparedness. “It really sucks to lose those three games there. We’ve definitely got our work cut out for us. Our window is closing.”
Past success against Mariners starter Chris Flexen didn’t translate this time around. Flexen allowed three hits over his seven innings. Starling Marte’s double in the ninth inning off Drew Steckenrider was Oakland’s fourth hit of the night, but he was stranded on base.
“We’ve had some success making him work in the past,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Didn’t make him work as much today — obviously with seven innings and only three hits and didn’t get his pitch count up like we had in the past.”
Chapman’s 27th home run accounted for the singular run. Of the 24 hits Chapman has collected over his last 30 games, 13 have been home runs. But one solo home run just won’t cut it.
“We got to find ways to score runs and combat the way they’ve been pitching us,” Chapman said. “They’ve been coming after us and keeping us off balance. For us, we have to get on base and find ways to get that timely hit.”
While those big hits came in spades during the A’s five-game win streak that started in Kansas City and continued into Los Angeles against the Angels, a timely hit hasn’t been too close this series. A major concern as the team dropped to 3.5 games back of the New York Yankees for the AL’s second wild card spot.
The Mariners overtook them in the wild card standings by a game, and the Toronto Blue Jays sit a half-game back of the Yankees with the Boston Red Sox holding firm two games up in the first spot.
Those 10 games that remain hold opportunity, at least. Things can go haywire for one of the other four teams vying for two coveted spots. Perhaps the A’s can find some shift in energy with Chris Bassitt returning to the mound on Thursday for his first start since he was hit in the face with a line drive and sustained facial fractures on Aug. 17. Bassitt, a vocal team leader, has a knack for getting the team going.
“We have to win tomorrow,” Melvin said. “You lose three games like this. Where we are after coming back and winning five in a row, you try to build off of that, we don’t have many games left…
“Tomorrow is a really important game for us. They all are. But we have to go out and win.”
Cole Irvin’s start
Cole Irvin found success this season with an ability to pound the strike zone, but missed out of the zone enough to collect a season-high five walks. Along with seven hits, Irvin gave up three runs — including two home runs from Kyle Seager and Ty France.
Irvin found a lot of swings-and-misses in the bottom of the zone — a goal of his over his recent starts to overcome a rough patch.
“I kept those past two outings in mind,” Irvin said. “I wanted to work them down in the zone and attack them differently than I have in the last few games. It’s just uncompetitive walks hurt me. Less so than my line might appear. Ultimately I have to make a couple better pitches there.”
The confusinng double ejection
Irvin was pulled after issuing Jarred Kelenic a leadoff walk in the sixth, then some drama began.
With Deolis Guerra pitching in relief, Tom Muphy appeared to hit a foul tip into catcher Sean Murphy’s glove and Kelenic bolted for second base when it popped out of his glove. The A’s appeared to get Kelenic out returning to first base amid the confusion, but umpires called the play dead. Crew Chief Greg Gibson explained the fiasco to a pool reporter:
“The ball came in, hit Murphy’s mitt, the runner was stealing. The pitcher asked for time. I thought he wanted a new ball. So when the pitcher held up time, I called time, because the pitcher had requested it. That’s when the runner, for whatever reason, started running back to second base. The pitcher, he had asked for time and I granted time. The guy was at second base, so that’s why (he was allowed to stay).”
Why was Kelenic sent back to second base?
“We had time and he was at second base. So everybody, it was just a lot of confusion,” Gibson said.
Melvin went out to ask Gibson if he had called timeout, “because I didn’t think he did,” Melvin said. “In the meantime Ryno was telling me after talking to our replay that it was a foul ball.”
Gibson thought bench coach Ryan Christenson (Ryno) was talking to him, so Gibson ejected Christenson. Melvin stayed on the field to defend Christenson, but was ejected, too.
A’s third base coach Mark Kotsay took over managing duties. Assistant hitting coach Eric Martins took over as first base coach, and Mike Aldrete moved to third base coaching duties.
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September 23, 2021 at 01:13PM
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Oakland A’s look uninspired in third straight loss to Seattle Mariners, lose ground in wild card - Vacaville Reporter
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