The Oakland Athletics had their first winning week of the season! They went 4-3, taking 1-3 games from the Detroit Tigers and taking 3-4 from the Bronx Bombers. The A's won their first home-series also. The three losses by the A's were by 2-runs or less - tough luck! We find ourselves 13 games under .500 (20-33), and 12.5 games behind the Firstros in the division. Next stop is Detroit, where the A's will try and carry the momentum from a very successful home stand.
Game #47) W 4-0 – 5/25/15 (Mon):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Game #48) L 0-1 – 5/26/15 (Tue):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Game #49) L 2-3 5/27/15 (Wed):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Game #50) W 5-4 5/28/15 (Thur):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Game #51) W 6-2 - 5/29/15 (Fri):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Game #52) L 3-5 – 5/30/15 (Sat):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Game #53) W 3-0 – 5/31/15 (Sun):
Highlights:
Concerns:
Wrap-Up & Next Week:
Game #47) W 4-0 – 5/25/15 (Mon):
Highlights:
- Jesse Hahn had the best start of his career: Complete Game shut-out against one of the best offensive teams in the AL: 9.0 IP 4 H 0 R 1 BB 5 K’s, 112 pitches 76 strikes (67.9%). 15-4 GO/FO, 3 GIDP pitched in and out of jams, and got around 3 errors in the field, excellent start,
- A’s got to Shane Greene in the 6th inning: Semien singled, Reddick Singled, Vogt popped out, Butler singled (RBI), Muncy doubled (RBI), Canha sac-fly (RBI), Fuld doubled (RBI) 4 runs total and that was all Hahn needed.
- Ben Zobrist came off the DL and is healthy, Doolittle is set to return tomorrow
- A’s have won a season high 3 games in a row!
Concerns:
- We’ll see how Hahn does in his next start after throwing a career high 112 pitches
- The A’s did commit 3 errors… (49) Muncy made two and of course, Semien (17) , Ron Washington will continue to work with Semien & other infielders to make them better, results will come sooner than later
Game #48) L 0-1 – 5/26/15 (Tue):
Highlights:
- Jesse Chavez was absolutely outstanding: 8.0 IP 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB 4 K’s, again, to a very potent and powerful Tigers’ lineup…. But the A’s still lost
- Sean Doolittle was activated from the 15-DL
- Josh Phegley threw out 3 base runners!
Concerns:
- Josh Phegley made a first-inning throwing error (50) error on the year for the Athletics,
- A’s left 10 runners on base and went 0-11 with RISP… not good.
- 2nd: A’s had 1st/3rd with 1 out – nothing
- 3rd: A’s had 1st/2nd with 1 out – nothing
- 4th: A’s had 1st/2nd with 1 out – nothing
- 5th: runner on 2nd with 1 out – nothing
- 9th: chance to tie the game, Fuld doubled with 2 outs, but nope. Another 1 run loss. Ugh
Game #49) L 2-3 5/27/15 (Wed):
Highlights:
- We hit 2 triples this game and both of those runs scored, however, we couldn’t do much of anything else
Concerns:
- Scott Kazmir pitched 3.0 IP of hitless ball, but had to come out of the game due to a left shoulder strain
- Dan Otero came in in relief and surrendered a 3-run HR to who? Of course, Yoenis Cespedes.
- It looked like we just ran out of gas and gave into the Tiger’s closer, Joaqim Soria: A’s had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, (it seems as tho they always bring the tying/winning run to the plate late in the game), the next two batters struck out – to end the game.
- The A’s are now 2-15 in one-run games this season…
Game #50) W 5-4 5/28/15 (Thur):
Highlights:
- After being down 3-0, the A’s grinded back with 5 unanswered runs against Vallejo native, CC Sabathia & the bullpen
- To me, this was a huge game for the A’s. They wanted it more than the Yankees. The Yanks sorta fell asleep on the A’s and thought the A’s would roll over and die, but no. We played solid baseball from beginning to end, went 3-9 with RISP (clutch), and pulled out a victory
- Billy Burns got the A’s on the board with a solo HR down the left field line that just stayed fair.
- Brett Lawrie’s 2-out, 2-run bomb tied up the game at 3 (huge) – if the A’s are gonna make any push for the playoffs, they need to get Brett Lawrie going. Like really going.
- Josh Phegley 2-4, Mark Canha 1-2 R BB
- Graveman – one out away from a QS 5.2 IP 7 H 3 ER 2 BB 4 K’s, not his best stuff but he showed that he could battle through a tough lineup while only giving up 3 runs – something he couldn’t do earlier this year
- Abad -> Scribner -> Clippard – lock down except Clippard, as always, made things a little interesting in the 9th. A’s were up 5-3, he got 2 quick outs, then walked a batter, next batter doubled in a run (5-4), then he got the last batter to fly out to deep center (phew)
Concerns:
- Even with this 1-run win, now 3-15, the A’s are still 14 games under .500
Game #51) W 6-2 - 5/29/15 (Fri):
Highlights:
- Sonny Gray was outstanding as usual: 8.0 IP 4 H 2 ER 2 BB 5 K’s – he has a 1.82 ERA and he’s got a record of 6-2 (All-Star)
- Tyler Clippard notched his 6th save, and third of the series
- A’s had a major big 3rd inning off Chris Capuano of the Yanks: Billy Burns lead off with a double, Semien singled through the left-side, Burns to second, Zobrist reached on an error by 3B Chase Headley (A’s caught a break on the Yanks miscue!) Butler doubled (RBI) Zobrist to third, Vogt huge double (2RBI) 4-0 A’s!
- Lawrie added with a 2-run bomb in the 8th - (his second of the series) making it a 6-2 ball game
- A’s didn’t let NY back into the game at all, No errors, solid defense, good overall win
Concerns:
- None for this game, A’s have won 2 in a row, they’re playing good ball. Just need to get healthy, and stay healthy. Still don’t have a series win at home yet this year… we’re up 2 games & can clinch tomorrow
Game #52) L 3-5 – 5/30/15 (Sat):
Highlights:
- A’s were up in this game 3-1 thanks to some clutch hitting in the bottom of the 3rd: 3 straight singles, then a sac fly by Billy Butler, RBI single from Reddick; bottom 4th: 2 out RBI single from Semien.
Concerns:
- Hahn failed to get a shutdown inning in the 5th: lineout, groundout (yes, there were two outs and no one on…), single, then an error by Lawrie on a hard hit ground ball.. the play should have been made tho, this was, in my opinion, a big momentum shifter in the game. RBI single (3-2)
- Yanks 6th: Beltran huge 2-run HR to take the lead, and in the 8th: the Yanks added an insurance run.
- A’s couldn’t hit the pen… couldn’t overcome the error. This is something that they’ve been playing through. Errors. But they can’t overcome them all.
Game #53) W 3-0 – 5/31/15 (Sun):
Highlights:
- Jesse Chavez was truly outstanding, might be the most underrated pitcher in the AL, he is now 2-5 on the year with a 2.11 ERA… he could easily be 5-2 if they A’s could give the guy any run support… He’s gotten 1.2 Runs Per Game in his starts. Not good. That’ll improve as the season goes on. 8.0 IP 7 H 0 ER 0 BB 6 K’s, and what made this start even more impressive was that he overcame some control issues early on in the game, he didn’t walk a single batter, and better yet, didn’t allow any runs.
- Vogt hit what appeared to be a sac-fly to RF, but the ball got caught in the Jetstream and carried out! Good for a 2-run Jack. This pretty much sealed the deal on the game
- Tyler Clippard recorded his 3rd save of the series and his 7th on the season.
- In the series, Billy Burns went 9/16 (.536) with 6 runs scored, a HR, RBI and 2 SB… incredible, Coco who?
Concerns:
- Can the A’s carry this momentum into Detroit?! Hopefully! :D
Wrap-Up & Next Week: