Oakland Athletics Can’t Catch A Break!

The Oakland Athletics lost their second game of the series against the Houston Astros after a 12-inning affair. Let’s take a closer look.

The Oakland Athletics lost a tough game against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park 6-5. The starting pitchers for both teams were knocked out relatively early, leaving a long bullpen battle for both teams. Houston walked off as the victors after a twelfth inning rally against Ryan Madson, who got the loss. Scott Feldman scored the win for the Astros.

Kendall Graveman only got through 4 1/3 innings for the Oakland Athletics while allowing five earned runs, striking out one. Collin McHugh for the Astros pitched a similar line, going only 5 1/3 innings and allowing four runs, though he did strike out five A’s.

More impressive of course was the A’s bullpen which pitched a total of 6 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Daniel Coulombe, called up today from Triple-A Nashville, pitched for five outs.

Ryan Dull struck out two in one inning; Sean Doolittle struck out three, and John Axford struck out five in two innings.

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The Oakland Athletics had a shot in extra innings as Luke Gregerson, the Astros closer, gave up a home run to Jed Lowrie with two outs. Lowrie’s homer was his first of the year, and he quietly continues to produce since coming off of the disabled list. Since his May 25 return to action, Lowrie has gone 13-for-36 as a table setter for the Athletics.

Unfortunately, the A’s unraveled in the 12th, as Ryan Madson gave up a quick double to George Springer, who was quickly bunted to third base by Jose Altuve.

Then, after a lengthy meeting on the mound, Madson and Bob Melvin decided to pitch to Carlos Correa, which proved to be a vital mistake. With the A’s infield playing in close to prevent a play at the plate, Correa sliced the first pitch he saw into right field.

Without question, the way the bullpen has been used as of late has been tiring the Oakland Athletics. Though Oakland did get a day off on Thursday, yesterday’s game is especially tough for the bullpen and position player Tyler Ladendorf ended up pitching in that 12-2 loss.

Thankfully, with Andrew Triggs pitching four innings yesterday, he did his job in bandaging the A’s night. Of course, with him being sent down for Daniel Coulombe today (and with J.B. Wendelken arriving for the A’s), the A’s are hoping to have a fresh start tomorrow against the Astros should they need to rely on the bullpen again.

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The Athletics face the Astros once again tomorrow at Minute Maid Park as Sonny Gray (3-5, 6.19 ERA) will go up against Lance McCullers (2-1, 4.79 ERA). First pitch is at 11:10 AM PST.