A’s lose to Mariners on walk-off wild pitch
The A's deficit behind the Houston Astros in the American League West race grows to 4.5 games.
The A’s are beginning to lose ground on the Houston Astros in the American League West race, and they are doing it in the most frustrating way.
The Seattle Mariners scored the winning run on Saturday night the same way they a day earlier: an Oakland wild pitch.
A’s manager Bob Melvin went to his closer, Lou Trivino, with the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Trivino yielded a single and then two walks, but got two quick outs and appeared headed out of trouble and on the verge of sending the game into extra innings. Then Trivino delivered a first-pitch curveball to Mitch Haniger that bounced in the dirt too far from the plate for catcher Aramis Garcia to block it. Jarred Kelenic sprinted home to pin the A’s with a 5-4 walk-off loss.
“He’s just trying to make a good pitch and just yanked it,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “That’s the last thing that crosses your mind right there. Hopefully, it’s coincidental that it’s the last couple of days (ending with wild pitches).
“It’s just frustrating that we lost in the fashion that we did the last two nights with two of our best guys.”
The A’s are now 4.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West race.
Trivino said the curveball was the right offering for Mountain View’s Haniger, who was 3-for-4 with a double and two home runs on the evening. Melvin agreed with Trivino’s assessment, adding that It was the execution of that pitch and several before it that hurt the Oakland closer.
“It’s very frustrating,” Trivino said. “I mean no disrespect to their hitters, but it’s not like they beat me. I beat myself. Anyone looking at the game — I gave up that first hit and that’s a good piece of hitting, then I walk two people and I throw a wild pitch. That’s the thing that really angers me.”
A wild pitch sealed the A’s fate but certainly wasn’t the only thing that contributed to it.
After Oakland scored three runs in the third and chased Seattle starting pitcher Logan Gilbert from the game after just 2.2 innings, its offense fell flat. Five Mariners relievers combined to hold the A’s to one hit the rest of the way, the lone knock a tying solo home run from Garcia in the seventh.
It was a dramatic dropoff for an A’s offense that saw 81 pitches in the first three innings, 46 of which came in the third inning alone. Seattle threw just 75 pitches in the final six innings.
“We just have to do more offensively,” Melvin said. “One hit after the third is not ideal. We just have to put together better at-bats whether it’s making guys throw a few more pitches or drawing a walk and maybe being less aggressive with not getting in great counts. Our at-bats need to be a little better where we take pressure off the pitchers where they have to be perfect and can’t give up a run.”
Oakland right-hander Chris Bassitt’s evening was far more strenuous than most of his starts this season. The A’s Opening Night starter, who made his 100th major-league appearance on Saturday, threw 32 pitches in the first of his five innings, an early sign of shaky control that plagued him throughout the outing.
Asked to describe his body of work on Saturday night, Bassitt simply said it was “trash.”
“Pitch execution was terrible,” Bassitt said. “Just bad.”
Added Melvin: “Not a lot of bad swings off him today. Didn’t get much of a bite on his breaking ball today. (The Mariners) made him work. In the first, he had to throw 30-plus pitches and he had 50 through two. Maybe they just wore him down early on in the game.”
Bassitt surrendered five hits, three walks and four runs. Three hits belonged to Haniger, who smashed a double and two home runs in the first five innings.
Bassitt was also visibly enraged by several pitches called balls by home plate umpire Nestor Ceja. He declined to talk much about umpiring, though, stating just that “the umpires are trying their best.”
Bassitt has pitched five or fewer innings just five times in 21 starts this season.
“You can either hang your head and just be sad about a but whooping or you can figure out what the heck’s going on and clean it up,” Bassitt said. “I’m going to do the latter.”
Given the outcome of Saturday’s game, it could easily go unnoticed, but a pair of A’s relievers continued their streaks of excellence late in the contest.
Right-hander Deolis Guerra pitched a scoreless sixth inning, his seventh consecutive scoreless outing. Guerra came back out to pitch the seventh but surrendered a leadoff single, and Melvin called on Sergio Romo, who has been his most effective high-leverage pitcher in recent weeks. Again, Romo delivered.
The right-hander pitched two scoreless innings, punctuated by a strikeout of Haniger with three straight sliders. Romo ran his scoreless streak to 11 games. His ERA sits below 1.00 over his last 23 appearances.
“Romo has done a really good job,” Melvin said.
The A’s lead over the Mariners for second place in the West and the second wild-card spot narrowed to 2.5 games with their wild-pitch losses on Friday and Saturday. Oakland will look to regain control in its series finale in Seattle on Sunday.
“It’s frustrating but we’re a good team and we’ll rebound,” Trivino said.