Oakland Athletics Recap: Lessons From Last Night’s Win
Last night the bullpen survived a crucial Ike Davis error and held on to preserve the Oakland Athletics’ 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Is this a turning point for the relief corps? Probably not. Newly-anointed setup man Evan Scribner allowed one hit to the only batter he faced, setting up a situation where Minnesota could have easily captured the lead. Interim closer Tyler Clippard closed out the eighth inning and nailed down the ninth to even the series a one win apiece.
Lessons from last night’s Oakland Athletics win:
1. Jesse Chavez is ready for the rotation. After bouncing around from team to team early in his career, Chavez has found his baseball home in Oakland. But when he excelled as a starter last year his stamina appeared to wear down and he was returned to the bullpen, until a couple weeks ago. He has made three starts for the A’s in 2015 and been sensational in two of them.
Last night he was visibly and audibly unhappy when Ike Davis botched a potentially inning ending double play. His frustration with that play likely represents how the team feels about the recent late-inning struggles. Chavez wants to win and doesn’t have problem showing his emotion.
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2. Billy Burns deserves the chance to play everyday. Burns posted sensational on-base and speed numbers in the minor leagues and, if given a chance to play every day in the majors, he can really cause havoc at the top of the A’s batting order. It is a small sample, but in four games burns is 7-for-19 with one walks, two strikeouts, three runs scored, and one stolen base.
He represents the best chance the Athletics have to score early and often simply getting on, getting over, and someone getting him in. Unfortunately this would force the team to get creative with how it deals with the surplus of speedy, defensively capable outfielders, and Mark Canha.
3. After starting out extremely slowly and being highly susceptible to breaking pitches, Brett Lawrie has turned his season around lately.
Lawrie is currently riding a nine-game hitting streak, raising his batting average from .219 to .260. Lawrie drove in the winning runs in yesterday’s game and has collected 10 RBIs during his hit streak. He can be a big piece of the lineup moving forward, especially if he can cut his strikeout rate from nearly 30 percent to his career mark of 18 percent.