Oakland Athletics Game 31 – Friday, May 8, 2015 @ 7:00 pm
Game Attendance: Away Game
Season Attendance: 291,434
Lowest Attendance: 15,025 (Game 2)
Game Time: 3:34
Season Time: 92:21
Win Record: 12-19
Win Record vs Mariners: 1-3
Streak: L3
AL West Standing: 5th
Elimination Number: 125
Winning Pitcher: Carson Smith (1-2)
Losing Pitcher: Dan Otero (2-2)
Pitchers/Pitch Count: Gray/104, Scribner/20, Abad/23, Rodriguez/17, Clippard/13, Otero/1
Total Pitches per game: 178
Total Pitches per season: 4432
Game Home Runs: 1
Season Home Runs: 27
Game Runs: 3
Season Runs: 148
Runs Rank: 2nd (tied with Royals)
Run Differential: 3
Differential Rank: 16th
Game RBI Leader: Reddick (2)
Season RBI Leader: Vogt (25)
Most RBI’s in Single Game: 5 (27)
Game RISP: 2 for 10
Game LOB: 8
Season RISP: 82 for 275
Season LOB: 208
Game Batting Average: .157
Lineup Batting Average: .261
Total Players Used in Game: 17
Most Players Used in Game: 20 (Game 25)
Challenged Plays: 0
Total Challenged Plays: 8
Total Overturned Plays: 2
Games Won in Extra Innings: 0
Total Games Played in Extra Innings: 4 (6,7,18,25,31)
Special Notes:
To write something new about another Oakland Athletics loss at the hands of a bullpen, in extra innings, against division rivals has become a laborious chore. Evan Scribner, who has been a fairly stable presence in the bullpen recently, is responsible for the two runs that tied the game but overall there were solid outings by Fernando Rodriguez and Tyler Clippard who combined for 2.2 hitless innings with three strike outs and no walks.
A silver lining to this game is in those two men who may be on the path to meeting expectations. Rodriguez has pitched in 3.2 innings since getting the call and has yet to give up a hit. That number may seem insignificant but consider how few innings it took the rest of this bullpen to get an ERA over 5.00.
Clippard, who hasn’t been bad but has lacked significant playing time, hasn’t given up a run in his past four outings and in that time has only given up a single hit and hasn’t walked a batter. When Sean Doolittle returns (and he threw to batters for the first time in rehab today), Clippard will make a great setup man.
Another silver lining in this game is the home run by Josh Reddick which drove in two (Sam Fuld broke a hitless streak). Reddick is slowing down a hair in his last five games, hitting just .167, but in that span he has a homer, three walks, two RBI’s, and only two strike outs. More than anything, the strikeout number is the one to watch because he is on pace for a career low in that department. It is refreshing to see Reddick covering all of the field and even when he’s hitting for outs, they’re often deep enough to be productive.
There was, of course, an error in this game and the Oakland Athletics lead all of baseball with 28 errors and are on pace for beating 2014 (when they finished the season with the second most errors) by 35. If this team remains at this pace, it is going to be an incredibly long season.
One are that confuses me is the lack of base stealing this year. Considering the speed in the lineup right now with Fuld, Burns, Crisp and Reddick typically in the top three spots and the high number of men left in scoring position (the A’s rank 15th in baseball) one would assume there would be more base stealing but the team is setting a pace for 20 fewer base steals than 2014.
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Of course, with Coco only just returning and yet to record a hit, this number may go up dramatically when he gets hot but the leader in the club is Marcus Semien with four. I’d like to see that number go up, especially as Coco gets into the swing of things, so that more of these one run games go in our favor.