Tiring Athletics Don't Offer Much Resistance to Angels' Dylan Bundy
It may be that this is just going to be a season of streaks for the Oakland A’s.
In the first seven games of the season, the hitters couldn’t get it going and the A’s were 3-4 and starting to ask questions. Then Oakland won nine in a row, everything seemed to click. No problem.
Then the last two nights in Anaheim popped up. Tuesday the A’s got shut out for the first time this season, 6-0, with Dylan Bundy doing most of the heavy lifting for the Angels with seven scoreless innings.
That followed the final five innings of Monday’s 10-9 loss in the series opener. The A’s scored nine runs in the first four innings of that one. Since then, there have been just seven hits total and zero runs in 14 innings.
Manager Bob Melvin seems to be seeing his team tiring. The A’s played Tuesday 12th consecutive day after having a limited three weeks of workouts following almost four months off thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. For that reason, Melvin wonders if his guys are just wearing down a bit. They play again Wednesday afternoon, then get a day off at home Thursday.
“Last night we just got outscored (the last five innings), and then today we’re just a little bit rundown,” Melvin said. “If we win tomorrow, we feel a lot better going into the off-day.”
To feel better, the A’s are going to need to get better starting pitching than they’ve gotten in the last two days from Sean Manaea Monday and Mike Fiers Tuesday. Together they pitched just 6.1 innings, giving up 14 hits and nine earned runs. That left it for the bullpen to clean up for 10 innings.
And they’re going to have to get better offense than they’ve had in the last 15 innings, when they ‘ve struck out 16 times, more than double the total of hits they’ve collected. The A’s lead the American League with 184 strikeouts in 18 games, just over 10 strikeouts per game. They’ve struck out at least eight times in 16 of the 18 games.
On this night, at least, A’s left fielder Robbie Grossman was willing to tip his cap to Bundy, who threw 6.2 innings in Game 2 against the A’s in Oakland before giving up his only run and who did it better Tuesday, allowing three singles and a double in seven innings without being scored upon.
And he, too, said the A’s bats may be just a bit weary. Not that they’re ready to give into it.
“We’re up for the challenge,” said Grossman, who doubled and singled to collect two of the five Oakland hits. “We knew what kind of season we were getting ourselves into when we started and we’re all up for the challenge and we’re looking forward to coming back tomorrow.”
Fiers said his season-low 3.2 innings was mostly a matter of poor location. How poor? He gave up homers to Anthony Rendon, Jason Castro and Brian Goodwin, all in the fourth inning. Thanks mostly to Castro’s three-run shot, that put the A’s in a 5-0 hole, and the game was essentially over.
“That 3-1 count to Castro is right down the middle,” Fiers said. “It’s really tough to swallow and now I’ve got to get ready for my next start.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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