The Athletics returned to Oakland to host a brief, two-game series against the New York Mets. After a rough road trip through Kansas City and Atlanta, the A’s welcomed the trip back home with open arms, and more importantly, with some offensive punch. Similar to results in New York City, the A’s and Mets split the two-game series. The A’s now wait for the Angels to conclude their four-game series in Boston against the Red Sox and could find themselves as much as two games behind the Angels after Wednesday and Thursday’s games in Boston.
Here is a recap of the two-game sweep for the A’s.
Game 1 final score: Athletics 6, Mets 2
SP Scott Kazmir pitched himself into and out of trouble in the first two innings, with the Mets putting runners in scoring position in both innings, only to have Kazmir find a way to get out of the inning unscathed. The A’s offense sputtered along as well in the early innings, with Derek Norris grounding into a double play to end the second inning with a man on base and then Josh Donaldson watching pitches cross the strike zone with the bases loaded for his second K in the bottom of the third inning.
The Mets got on the board first with a solo home run from Travis d’Arnaud in the top of the fourth. However, Mets SP Dillon Gee couldn’t get the shutdown inning in the bottom half of the inning as the A’s offense came out of its shell for four runs, highlighted by a bases loaded clearing triple from Coco Crisp. The Mets cut the gap in half to 4-2 in the top of the seventh inning, but the A’s answered yet again in the eighth inning with a two-run home run by Josh Reddick to all but end the game and any hopes of a comeback.
Sean Doolittle saw his first game action since last Thursday with an impressive ninth inning, striking out the side on 18 pitches.
Game 2 final score: Mets 8, Athletics 5
Jeff Samardzija had his worst game on the mound since becoming an Oakland Athletic. Samardzija could only get through 3.2 IP and gave up 7 earned runs. He could not get the third and final out in the third and fourth innings and gave up all seven runs on his own.
If there is a promising sign for the A’s is that their offense continued to hit well. While not enough to pull out the come from behind victory, the A’s plated five runs and had multiple chances in the late innings to tie or go ahead of the Mets. However, the big bats in the middle of the A’s lineup ended each of the last three innings; Derek Norris grounded into a double play to end the 7th, Donaldson struck out with the bases loaded in the 8th, and Brandon Moss grounded out to end the game after a Stephen Vogt double.
What’s Next?
The A’s will host the Los Angeles Angels this Friday through Sunday. As mentioned in our Weekly Preview, the Angels are in Boston and are not getting any favors from the Red Sox, who have scheduled Thursday’s game to be played at night, forcing the Angels to take a late flight across the country to play at O.co the very next day. Given the two days of rest they are receiving this week, the A’s announced that they are skipping Jason Hammel’s scheduled start this weekend against the Angels and pushing him back to next week. The A’s rotation for the weekend series will be Sonny Gray, Jon Lester, and Scott Kazmir.