Just Before Roster Trim Day, Burch Smith Makes His Case for Athletics
The A’s, like the other 29 clubs, are going to have to make a couple of roster decisions Thursday.
It’s the day that Major League rosters have to be trimmed from 30 to 28, and there was an outside chance that Burch Smith was going to be one of those sent out.
It’s not happening. Not after the right-handed reliever pitched 3.1 innings of scoreless relief, retiring all 10 Texas Rangers, keeping the game close after a rocky start from Sean Manaea. Smith’s effort shut down the Rangers until rookie catcher Austin Allen could put the A’s ahead to stay with a two-run homer in the seventh, the first of his career.
Matt Olson, who gave the A’s a 2-1 lead with a homer in the first inning, homered again leading off the eighth as the A’s walked away with their fifth consecutive win, 6-4.
Smith has pitched in four games, winning two of them, and has yet to allow a run in 7.1 innings. He’s not going anywhere.
“Burch is nasty,” Allen said. “He’s got that fastball that just spins. It’s got that spin rate that everybody is talking about now, and he can throw his curveball and changeup at any point, too. He’s coming out of the bullpen … to attack hitters. He proved tonight he’s got the stuff to succeed.”
Allen himself had not had too much success in the early going. He came into his at-at in the seventh hitless in 11 at-bats. With the A’s down 3-2 and Tony Kemp on first base after a single, Allen tried to put all that out of his mind.
“Just hit it hard,” is what Allen said he told himself. “I’m not there trying to do too much, and just really stick with my approach. I’m not too concerned with 11 at-bats, because anything can change.”
It did, when he jumped on a 2-0 fastball from Rangers’ reliever Ian Gibaut. How did that first big-league homer feel?
“I didn’t even feel it hit the bat,” Allen, picked up from the Padres this winter, said. “I just hit it, and it was just relief when I was running around fist base and I saw it go over. I can’t even put the feeling into words.”
Even with a victory that stretched the winning streak to five games, the are still issues for the A’s. Manaea, for the third consecutive start, was brilliant for three innings. Once he’s gotten to the fourth and fifth, however, things fall apart. He’s allowed three runs in each of the fourth innings of his last two starts.
“We just need to (have Manaea) push through and get him through those middle innings,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I think once he gets through that, it’s kind of breaking down a wall. And then he’ll be better for it. We just haven’t gotten to that point yet.”
Smith took over with one out and a man on second. All he did was retire all 10 batters he would face. Meanwhile, Ramón Laureano would hit a solo homer in the fifth to get the A’s within a run, setting up Allen in the seventh.
Speaking of Smith, Melvin said he didn’t know what he looked like before – he’d pitched 38 games for the Royals two years ago and just 17 games combined for the Brewers and the Giants amid injuries last year – “but since we’ve seen him he comes in and gives you multiple innings.”
“I wasn’t sure we were going to get that far with him (Wednesday night), but we did,” the manager said. “His confidence has to keep growing. He’s missed some time in the past with injuries, but he’s done a terrific job for us.”
As for the moves the A’s are expected to make Thursday, it seems likely that right-handed pitcher James Kaprielian, called up Tuesday after Jordan Weems got hurt, will be one odd man out. In other circumstances, Franklin Barreto would out, too.
Melvin said before Wednesday’s game “first of all, I would like to stay at 30.”
However, he has not found a start for Barreto in the first 12 games of the season, just one pinch-running appearance and a couple of late game changes that have seen Barreto get three at-bats while Chad Pinder has collected all the starts against left-handed pitching at second base.
What likely spares Barreto is the fact that he’s out of options and the A’s would stand to lose him if he’s trimmed from the roster. So, rookie outfielder Seth Brown, also limited to three at-bats but with plenty of options left, may find the numbers game working against him.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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