A lot of things happened in Oakland on Sunday, and none of them were good as the A's dropped their third consecutive game to the AL-best Baltimore Orioles losing 12-1, getting swept, and falling off the race for winning the AL West.
As if that was possible, anyway.
Losing a game is already a bad thing. Losing by 11 freaking runs is an entirely different one. The A's started strong, only trailing by one by the end of the first inning. They allowed another one in the second, then two in the third, three in the fourth, but not four in the fifth!
The problem for the A's wasn't just allowing runs. It was doing so in the fashion shown below.
MATEO JUST HIT AN INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN!!! pic.twitter.com/J8ic6CFdQU
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 20, 2023
That's an inside-the-park home run. That is, also, a hit by former Oakland Athletics shortstop Jorge Mateo, who the A's traded for on July 2017 sending Sonny Gray to the New York Yankees, only to re-trade the SS to the Padres on June 2020 deeming him not good enough for the organization. LOL.
Truth be told, the Padres didn't even trade him but instead cut him straight on Aug. 2021, so they were even more incompetent as a ballclub than the A's were, which is definitely something to say.
The Orioles, better run than those two other franchises judging by their current placement in the standings atop the American League, claimed the Dominican off waivers two days after he was released and never looked back. Look at the O's and the A's now.
Rooker unloads for No. 2️⃣0️⃣ pic.twitter.com/rX1I4D2xN2
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 20, 2023
The only thing worth celebrating from the A's perspective was Brent Rooker's 20th home run of the season. Rooker has now bagged two times more home runs than he did through his first season in the major leagues as he blasted one in 2019, nine in 2020, and none last year.
It's a stupid and tiny detail, but it'd be great if Rooker can get himself to hit 25 homers, the same number he sports in his unifor, to cap the season. Plenty of time and games left, so he should eventually get there.
Seth Brown did his thing, as is the case more often than not these days, by grabbing a cannonball midair turning two all by himself.
Brownie turns two by himself 😮 pic.twitter.com/hYqPZ7DtL1
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 20, 2023
Zack Gelof got his 10th multi-hit (two) game as a member of the Major A's, which is great considering he's just appeared in 31 games to date!
On the other hand, A's starter JP Sears had a career day for the bad. He went four innings deep, allowed seven earned runs on nine hits, walked a couple of batters, and only K'd four through 68 pitches thrown.
Sears allowed nine hits earlier this month against the Texans, but he had not logged a 7-ER outing so far this season with his prior worst coming on Apr. 27 against the Los Angeles Angels when he finished with six ER on six hits attached to his name.
Better days must be ahead, for all of us and for the A's.