Athletics Week In Review: 7/2-7/8

The Oakland Athletics had a relatively short week this week as they only played five games, two at home against the Padres and three on the road against the Indians.

They opened the week up Tuesday night where Chris Bassitt faced off against Padres starter Clayton Richard. Bassitt only went 4.2 innings but was backed up by the bullpen where Emilio Pagan, Ryan Buchter, Lou Trivino, and Blake Treinen combined to pitch 4.1 only allowing two hits, one walk and no runs. Oakland’s offense was led by Jed Lowrie who went 2-3 with a double and three RBIs. The A’s would score five in the sixth and one in the seventh to defeat the Padres 6-2.

The A’s then closed the series with San Diego with a 4-2 victory led by Stephen Piscotty’s bat. Piscotty went 3-4 with three doubles and three RBIs while Sean Manaea got the job done on the bump going seven strong innings only allowing four hits and two walks.

After a day off Thursday, the A’s were in Cleveland Friday for game one of a three game set where they were able to get to Carlos Carrasco early but the Indians offense scored four runs in the second and third inning, knocking Paul Blackburn out after four innings. The Indians were able to tack on six more runs as Oakland would drop game one of the series, 10-4.

Saturday was a different story for the Athletics as they trailed 3-0 going into the eighth inning. The offense couldn’t figure out Indians ace Corey Kluber as he held them to only five hits and no runs through seven innings but Cleveland replaced the former Cy Young winner in the eighth inning with with RHP Neil Ramirez and that’s all the A’s needed to get the offense going.

Dustin Fowler began the top of the eighth with a strike out but was followed by Mark Canha who was able to get on base with a single to left field. That’s when the fireworks began and Jed Lowrie hit a home run to right field to close the gap to one run. That was then followed by Khris Davis’ twenty-first home run of the season, and with two swings of the bat, the game was tied.

The game would make it to the eleventh inning where Stephen Piscotty would hit his eighth home run on the season, a two-run shot, to give the Athletics a 5-3 lead. Matt Chapman would then double and score on a fielding error, giving Oakland a 6-3 lead they would not surrender.

Oakland was able to close the series out Sunday with a 6-0 win on Sunday over the Tribe behind five innings from Brett Anderson where he only allowed three hits and struck out three. Khris Davis finished 3-5 with an RBI double in the first and Jed Lowrie hit his sixteenth home run of the season, which was his 100^th hit of the season.

The Athletics now stand with a record of 50-40, which is good for third place in the AL West and puts them six games back of the second wild card spot.

If Oakland hopes to make ground in the AL West, this week would be a good place to start as they go to Houston for a four-game set against the division leading Astros. They then close the week and their ten-game round trip with a visit across the bay to take on the San Francisco Giants before the All-Star Break.

Newsletter