The Oakland Athletics lost a game on Monday. That's not really news anymore, but the truth is that the A's dropped this one 7-0 to the Boston Red Sox and they did so in quite a unique fashion.
The A's got shut down for the first time since July 6 when the Detroit Tigers (yes, the Tigers) beat them 9-0. That's not good, of course, but at least back then they got to hit the ball four times on that forgettable day.
Do you know what's really bad? The A's could only hit the ball once on Monday's game against the Sox. It's the first time since June 28 they got limited to one-hit ball.
Of course, on that day, Domingo German threw a perfect game. But even if you look past that date, the A's had hit at least two pitches in all but one game (at Tampa Bay on April 9) this year!
After Monday's horror show, the A's are leading all MLB teams in 2023 regular-season games with one or zero hits, overtaking the Kansas City Royals at the top of that particular leaderboard. That's correct, folks. These are your Oakland A's.
Today was a special one for Jacob Wilson 🙌 pic.twitter.com/2vlppDalxA
— A's on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) July 18, 2023
The best news coming out of the Oakland Coliseum on Monday for the A's was, probably, the 2023 MLB Draft no. 6 pick Jacob Wilson popping up, throwing some balls with the boys before the game, showing up after inking his first professional contract, and that's pretty much it.
The A's signed a few more draftees from their most recent class of youngsters, and they could be happy about that and what the future might (or might not, mind you) bring to the organization in hopes of improving their currently putrid results.
Don't even try to find highlights of Monday's game; there aren't any of them.
Brent Rooker returned to the lineup after getting ill on Sunday. Jordan Diaz had to leave the game halfway there because he caught the bug himself. Every single starter on the A's lineup struck out at least once with the exception of JJ Bleday. Ryan Noda was the only man able to hit a thing on the day. Sheesh.
Hypertalented rookie Zack Gelof found a way to walk, same as Cody Thomas (on relief of Noda following his ejection) and Bleday. That's all the positives from Oakland's game.
Oh, yes, Ryan Noda got ejected from a game that the A's trailed 6-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning because you know, he drew a line or doodled something on the dirt around the plate. Again, your A's these days.
I shouldn't even mention the pitching performance because, well, you kind of already know what is about to come.
Nick Pivetta got the win for the Sox striking out 13 batters while Paul Blackburn took the mound for the A's and allowed six runs on nine hits while walking a couple of batters and striking out a mere three. All of that, Blackburn did in only five-and-change innings of play. Yay!
Sam Moll was perfect (no, seriously) through 1.1 innings of no-hits, no-walks ball, while Angel Felipe folllowed him and allowed the lone reamining run on one hit walking two and striking two more to close a dreadful chapter in the 2023 book of the A's.
At least Oakland nearly "filled" the Coli (to the 10K-mark) by sitting a full-of-Sox-fans crowd of 9,987 on the stands.