Though the team dropped the fourth consecutive game on this road trip, Oakland Athletics fans should take heart from the play of starting pitcher Sean Manaea.
Though he took the loss, Manaea pitched pretty well to everyone on the Milwaukee Brewers except former Oakland Athletics star Chris Carter.
Manaea got tagged for five earned runs, all of the runs came by way of two homers off the bat of Carter. Manaea’s last road start was in Boston where he gave up eight earned runs in 2.2 innings. So his “road era” is going to be pretty bad.
Nevertheless, I felt Manaea pitched with great effectiveness except for two bad pitches to Carter. Manaea is a young pitcher, but he seems to be learning from every start. He pitched seven strong innings, and he could have finished the game if he had been playing in an American League park.
Chris Carter has grown a great deal since he last played for the Oakland Athletics. He is a dangerous power hitter playing in a hitters park. Carter is among the league leaders in home runs. He still strikes out a lot, but he seems to be playing well for the Brewers.
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In some ways, the Oakland Athletics have to be happy that Carter is out of Houston because he punished his former team last year. Carter has ten home runs in 173 AB’s against the A’s.
I am sure that when the season began, Khris Davis probably circled June 7 on the calendar. It would have been a lot of fun to see Davis punish HIS former team. But in a National League park, there is no designated hitter.
Davis took a fastball to the elbow on Saturday, and he has numbness in his hand. Apparently he can hit, but playing in the field remains a challenge. Davis sat out Tuesday’s game. Danny Valencia came down with the flu, and he also had to skip this game. Yonder Alonso played a flawless third.
Billy Butler showed he could play the field. Ryan Braun hit a ball down to first, and Butler sort of booted it. The official scorer ruled it a hit, but it could have been called an error. Naturally Carter followed the hit with a long home run.
As I watch the Oakland Athletics on the road, it is hard to miss all the empty seats in the cities the Athletics are visiting. Perhaps the A’s are just a poor draw, but the problem goes deeper. Whether baseball will admit it or not, it appears attendance is down in many cities throughout the league.
There may be many factors for this, but declining offensive production is one reason that fans are not too excited. The owners are mucking around and trying to raise the strike zone which might be helpful. I have thought that umpires should take away “the black.”
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The outer edges of the plate are black, and if any part of the ball passes over the black, it can be called a strike. (Not to make excuses, but it seemed like just about anything could be called a strike in Tuesday night’s game.)
Making the pitcher throw over the white might increase the hitter’s chances.
One easy solution for instant offense would be for the National League to adopt the DH.
Giants fans would be unhappy because SF has Madison Bumgarner, who is one of the few pitchers who can hit for power. I have no problem with upsetting Giants fans.
Baseball purists don’t like the DH, but they are a dying breed. If Bumgarner takes a pitch to the elbow and loses feeling in his fingers, then SF fans might change their minds.
It would have been fun to see what Davis could have done against his former team. The Oakland Athletics put up a valiant struggle despite missing Valencia and Davis and having to do without the DH.
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Hopefully, everyone is feeling a lot better when they take on Milwaukee on Wednesday night. The A’s need to start a winning streak if they want to play .500 on this road trip.