The Oakland A’s were living off manufactured runs over their three-game winning streak. Those scrappy hits turned to costly double plays in the 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday in Oakland, snapping the streak.
The A’s offense hit into three double plays over three innings, extinguishing the handful of scoring threats they could muster against Angels starter Alex Cobb.
Cobb allowed three hits over seven scoreless innings, lowering his career 1.65 ERA at the Coliseum over five starts. With a keen ability to locate his sinker and splitter, Cobb spun eight strikeouts against the A’s, who looked lackluster against the right-hander.
“He just kept us off balance,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He has a really good split he throws in any count. He has a good sinker, high ground ball rate and throws just enough curveballs early in counts for strikes. Just had us off balance the entire game.”
Mitch Moreland was responsible for two of the A’s three hits against him, using an opposite field approach that’s helped the A’s offense of late. Tony Kemp had the other hit in the fourth inning, but some aggressive base running went south when he smartly tagged up second base on Matt Olson’s pop foul that third baseman Anthony Rendon chased down in the Coliseum’s ample foul territory. Kemp got a little too hungry when he saw third base wide open. David Fletcher was behind him with the ball, and tagged him out.
“The first part of the play was definitely good, tagging up when Rendon was going to foul territory in left. Went to second base, saw third was vacated,” Kemp said. “Didn’t concern myself with Wong, just saw that Rendon was so far away, and right when I made my first two steps, that’s when Cobb moved.”
That was one of a few double plays that hindered the A’s slumping bats. Matt Chapman drew a walk in the fifth, and Moreland’s second hit gave the A’s a scoring opportunity extinguished by Chad Pinder’s double play ball.
Kemp’s overall performance: Injuries have given Kemp more playing time and he’s capitalizing. The base running flop was a mere blemish on an otherwise strong 15 game stretch in which he’s batting .333 with a triple, home run and two doubles.
Frankie Montas and the errors: Montas feels his pitches are the best they’ve been in his career, he said after Saturday’s loss. He threw his splitter 21 times Saturday and generated seven whiffs. He cruised through four innings, was caught up by a costly error in the fifth.
Jose Rojas led off the fifth inning with a leadoff walk, then Anthony Bemboom singled. Matt Olson made a difficult play, charting David Fletcher’s squeeze bunt with room to spare to get Rojas at home, but catcher Aramis Garcia couldn’t wrangle the toss, was docked for the error, and Rojas scored.
That brought the top of the Angels lineup up back in play with the Angels best scoring threat yet; Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon collected three runs on a pair of RBI singles. Montas left the game visibly frustrated.
“I just got caught up in the moment,” Montas said. “As a pitcher, you need to keep your head straight and I got a little mad. I shouldn’t get mad at my teammates for that because they’re trying to make a catch for me. They did a hell of a job today. Just good thoughts for my teammates today.”
Former Angel Cam Bedrosian entered in relief for him with two outs in the sixth. Though Montas shouldered the four runs, none were earned.
Where is Ramón Laureano?: The A’s center fielder sat out the entire series with groin tightness. Laureano naturally plays an aggressive style of baseball, so the A’s decided to be cautious with him.
Laureano has improved, but “not enough to where we’re comfortable running him out there,” Bob Melvin said. He is day-to-day.
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Errors, double plays sting as Angels shut out Oakland A’s - Vacaville Reporter
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