Sunday baseball games are the norm as of late. It was time for the Oakland Athletics to close out a four-game series with the Houston Astros before the All-Star break. With that in mind, Oakland wanted to pick up a win, but never did.
Sunday’s pitching matchup featured two starters who have been struggling lately. Oakland Athletics’ Sean Manaea faced Houston Astros’ Dallas Keuchel. Let’s rewind to Tuesday night when Manaea allowed six runs in the A’s 11-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins. In addition, Keuchel is a subpar pitcher.
I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but it was a tedious, low scoring ballgame. Both starters kept the game scoreless through five innings. Then, Oakland broke the scoreless deadlock, getting on the board in the top of the sixth. The broken bat ended up at shortstop. Marcus Semien had absolutely no idea where the ball went, but he ended up running to second base and Matt McBride completed the play to give the A’s a 1-0 lead.
The A’s continued to lead 1-0 through six innings. It was time for the seventh inning stretch at Minute Maid Park. Could the A’s make it out alive? Only time will tell. The A’s are an extremely bipolar team. I’ll leave it at that.
Keuchel could’ve pitched an additional inning, but he left the ballgame after seven innings. He shined with four hits, one run, one earned run, two walks and five strikeouts. But Manaea was a little bit better. Manaea tossed seven innings with zero bases on balls, six strikeouts and a career-high 106 pitchers. Unfortunately, Manaea didn’t earn a win today.
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One thing that I’m still trying to wrap my head around is the fact Ryan Madson entered to save the game. Now he has blown four saves in a row. Also, Tyler Ladendorf is good defensively, but lags offensively. Ladendorf should return to Nashville and reunite with the Triple-A Sounds.
This was another A’s vs. Astros game that went down to the final pitch. There was a potential tying run at third base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The Astros had a chance to tie the ballgame (and they did). Evan Gattis‘ two-out RBI double scored Carlos Gomez to even the scoreboard 1-1.
The A’s bats were silent as the Astros had a three up, three down inning in the top of the 10th. After that, Oakland lost in one of the worst ways, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Astros in the bottom of the 10th. Danny Valencia‘s throwing error allowed Jake Marisnick to score the go-ahead run to lift the Astros to a win in the finale.
But the Orioles defeated the Angels 4-2, so the A’s remain in fourth place of the AL West. The majority of the A’s roster will have time to rest and refresh themselves due to the upcoming All-Star break. However, there are still a plethora of issues surrounding the struggling team.
Next: Tyler Ladendorf Needs A Ticket Back To Nashville
What do you think the A’s need to work on in order to achieve success? Let me know in the comments section.