Oakland Athletics Happy to Return to Warm and Dry California
By Mark Sigmon
The Oakland Athletics started this road trip with a sweep of the New York Yankees. After that successful visit to the Bronx, the trip went downhill.
The A’s dropped two of three to the Toronto Blue Jays, then three of four to the Detroit Tigers. The best thing you can say about the last two stops on the ten game road trip was that the A’s were not swept in either series.
The A’s came to Detroit after the Tigers were drubbed by the White Sox. The Tigers had managed to score just five runs in four consecutive losses. This, naturally, led to some soul searching on the part of the Tiger hitters, a lot of extra batting practice, and a revamped lineup. It paid off for the Detroit hitters: they spent the whole series teeing off on A’s starting pitching.
Chris Bassitt, much like Sonny Gray, proved that it is difficult to pitch well in frigid conditions. It was 40 degrees with a constant misty cold drizzle. Bassitt had two innings where the Tigers sent eight men to the plate.
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It was easy to see that he did not have his best stuff in the bottom of the fourth. Bassitt walked the number eight batter Jose Iglesias on four pitches, then gave up a long home run to the number nine hitter, Anthony Gose. By the time the fourth inning came to merciful close, Bassitt was gone and the Tigers had a lead they would not relinquish.
The bullpen, once again, had to pitch 4.1 innings. The relievers were, once again, magnificent.
In just one example, Fernando Rodriguez surrendered a triple to Jarrod Saltalamacchia to lead off the bottom of the fifth (a hit aided by the fact that Josh Reddick did not play the ball as cleanly as he could have). Rodriguez pitched out of the jam without allowing the run to score. He got Iglesias to ground out to third, then struck out Gose. Finally, Rodriguez got Ian Kinsler to hit an easy fly ball to center to end the inning.
It was a cold and wet day. I guess that counts for “Springtime” in Michigan. Playing conditions were pretty bad, and I felt for the Tiger fans who braved the elements to watch the game. At least their team came out on top.
Next: Sean Manaea to Make Debut
The Oakland Athletics must be looking forward to coming home to California. It is currently about 70 degrees under clear blue skies, and top pitching prospect Sean Manaea is making his major league debut on Friday. (For those of you wondering where is proven major league pitcher Jesse Hahn, apparently he is dealing with some blister issues.)
The Houston Astros are coming to town with the worst record in the American League, and they also just dropped two of three to the Mariners. They have only seven wins on the season.
Let’s hope the Astros wait to do the whole soul-searching, extra-BP, lineup-revamp thing until after they leave town.