Oakland Athletics: They Drop Yet Another Game

The Oakland Athletics have played well against the Texas Rangers this season.  Tuesday night, they hit well, but Eric Surkamp could not get out of the third inning.

Once again, a starter for the Oakland Athletics left early.  Once again, it became a bullpen game. Unfortunately, the bullpen was not as helpful as it could have been.  Marc Rzepczynski allowed two inherited runners to score in the third.  Rzepczynski walked Shin-Soo Choo to plate the seventh run charged to Surkamp.

The Oakland Athletics did come back to make a game of it.  The bats came through in a three-run sixth inning, and they rallied hard in the bottom of the ninth.  Josh Phegley came up with a big hit.  Jed Lowrie had seemingly worked a two-out walk, but the home plate umpire called him out on a pitch that was about four inches off the plate.

It did my heart good to see Lowrie argue long and hard even though the game was over.  The Oakland Athletics have a “Never say die” attitude that will eventually pay off if the starting rotation pitchers can ever get healthy at the same time.

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During the debacle that was the third inning, Mark Mulder was interviewing A’s draft pick, Daulton Jefferies.  (Go Bears!)  All I could think was, “That kid should grab a jersey and get out there because he could not pitch any worse than Surkamp.”

In the post game interview, Surkamp seemed incredibly frustrated.  His arm felt great, but he just had no feel for his curve ball.

In the second inning, Surkamp hung a curve to Robinson Chirinos. The Rangers’ catcher hit a long home run.  That one stung because it was on a 0-2 pitch.  I think, as fans, it is easy to forget that we are talking about genuine human beings.

Surkamp was asked about pitching well in Triple-A and then not pitching well in the majors.  He does not know why.  He must have said “I don’t know” about a dozen times.  If he knew why he could not get his curve to break, he would have corrected the problem.

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Not sure how helpful it is for color analysts to say, “He’s got to get the ball down.”  or “He has to bury that curve.”  Just sayin’…  Surkamp will figure it out, and Jesse Hahn will figure it out.  Until they do, the bullpen is going to pay a heavy price.

The Oakland Athletics were down 7-1 after three innings, and I was pondering which position player would be called upon to pitch the later innings.  The game did not get completely out of hand because Ryan Dull came in and pitched two great innings.

I am not one to give Bob Melvin advice, but I have a feeling that Dull is going to be saved for games that are not out of reach.  If the Oakland Athletics are going to be “sellers” at the trade deadline, they could elevate Dull to a closer pretty quickly.

According to Michael Lewis, author of “Moneyball,”  Billy Beane believes that “closers” are over valued by other teams.  Beane sort of prides himself on plucking hard throwing pitchers up from the minors, turning them into closers, and then trading them for a haul of prospects.

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When the team is ten games under .500, a “lights out” closer seems a little superfluous.  I would not be surprised at all if Ryan Madson was traded to a contender.

Sonny Gray will pitch on Wednesday.  Hopefully, he will be able to give the bullpen a well-deserved night off.