The Oakland A’s season is off to a bit of a precarious start, having just dropped two of three at home to the Cleveland Indians.
The A’s lost their major league record tenth straight Opening Day game this past Monday by a score of 2-0. Sonny Gray was strong but not spectacular on the mound, pitching himself into and out of trouble throughout his six innings of work, finishing with seven strikeouts and three walks while not allowing a run. Oakland ran into trouble in the 9th inning when supposed closer Jim Johnson came in to shut down the Indians so that the A’s could win it in the bottom of the inning.
Unfortunately, here is how the top of the 9th looked while Johnson was on the mound – Walk, Single, HBP, Sacrifice fly (run scored), Single (run scored) … Call to the bullpen. This isn’t exactly how Bob Melvin drew it up.
While it is easy to put the blame on Johnson, the A’s offense was silent for much of Opening Day as well. Justin Masterson pitched a gem of a game and it wasn’t until his departure that the A’s offense made a bit of noise. In a scoreless game, Daric Barton singled in the bottom of the 8th inning and then got to second on a wild pitch. Josh Donaldson hit a mammoth shot off the wall in center field for a single, but Barton went to tag instead of going half way between the bases, staying at third. Cody Allen got Jed Lowrie to strike out and Brandon Moss to ground out to end the inning immediately thereafter.
Game 1 final score: Indians 2, Athletics 0
Mother Nature reared her ugly head and forced the first cancellation in Oakland due to rain since 1998, leading to a day-night double header on Wednesday.
Scott Kazmir took the mound for the afternoon game and pitched an absolute gem, going 7.1 innings while striking out five, allowing no walks and only three hits. Due to the double header, Dan Otero pitched the remainder of the game to give the A’s the win. The A’s jumped on the Indians early, putting up one run in the 1st and two runs in each of the 2nd and 3rd innings – highlighted by the A’s first homerun of the season by Alberto Callaspo in the 3rd inning.
Game 2 final score: Athletics 6, Indians 1
In order to preserve his rotation moving forward, Melvin gave the ball to Josh Lindblom to start for the A’s. He subsequently turned in a decent performance and about what fans should have expected, going 4.2 inning and allowing two runs.
In a back and forth game, the A’s jumped on the Indians early, scoring twice in the bottom of the 1st inning on RBI’s from Lowrie and Yoenis Cespedes. After the Indians tied the game up in the top of the 4th with a home run, the A’s came right back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning on a RBI single from Sam Fuld. With runners on second and third and an opportunity to break the game open a bit, last year’s team MVP, Josh Donaldson, grounded out to shortstop to end the inning and threat.
The teams traded runs again in the 7th inning with the A’s taking a one run lead into the 9th. Rightfully so, Melvin handed the ball to Jim Johnson to close this one out and once again, Johnson struggled. In just two-thirds of an inning, Johnson gave up another three earned runs. While there was an error on the first scoring play, it probably didn’t lead to the A’s making the decision to intentionally walk Asdrubal Cabrera. David Murphy followed this plate appearance up with a sacrifice fly to provide an insurance run and that was all she wrote, as the A’s went away quietly in the bottom of the 9th.
Game 3 final score: Indians 6, Athletics 4
The A’s, and in particular Jim Johnson, will need to clear their heads as Seattle comes to town to start a four game divisional series on Thursday. Jesse Chavez will get the call for Thursday’s game, while Tommy Milone will get the privilege of going head to head with King Felix Hernandez Saturday afternoon.
The starting pitching has been solid thus far. After Opening Day, the offense certainly did enough to win both games of the double header. Hopefully this isn’t a trend for Jim Johnson and he can right the ship over the next four games.