Oakland Athletics Recap 5/27: A’s Defeated By Tigers
The Oakland Athletics lose another game, taking their losing streak to three.
96. 4. 63. Final. 1
The Oakland Athletics dropped another game, this time to the Detroit Tigers. The final score was 4-1 as Tigers pitcher Michael Fulmer confounded the A’s, limiting them to three hits and no runs during his 7 2/3 innings. Sean Manaea pitched for the A’s and went 6+ innings, allowing three runs.
Tonight’s matchup was billed as a game of two young upcoming phenom pitchers, with both Manaea and Fulmer listed by Baseball America as the top pitching prospects for each team. Manaea did not do badly, giving a quality start for the A’s. Fulmer, of course, was stellar, and he was supported by a Tigers offense led by Nick Castellanos who homered in the sixth inning.
The A’s offense was stymied by Fulmer’s great evening. Mustering only five hits total, the A’s sole run came in the ninth inning against Francisco Rodriguez. In a non-save situation, Rodriguez gave up a triple to Jed Lowrie who scored Danny Valencia.
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The A’s had an opportunity in the eighth inning. With a three-run differential, Chris Coghlan singled with two outs. Coco Crisp followed up with a hard-hit ground rule double to right field which disallowed Coghlan to score. Nevertheless, the A’s ended up with two men in scoring position with Billy Burns going up. Yet, instead of giving Burns the chance to continue his six-game hitting streak going into the evening, Bob Melvin inexplicably brought in Billy Butler to pinch hit for Burns against left-hander Justin Wilson.
Billy Butler for Billy Burns. Who would have thought? The numbers may favor Butler recently, as Butler can only hit against left handed pitching this year: though he is hitting .125 against right handers, vs. lefties he is .270. But by contrast, Burns is not hitting much worse against lefties at .250. This was a real head-scratcher especially as Butler promptly struck out. The last pitch Butler swung at was way outside the strike zone.
Defensively, Billy Burns made a highlight play on the first out of the game, fully extending his body into center field two pitches into the game. MLB’s Statcast had Burns running 76 feet at 18.6 mph to make this play happen, which is pretty impressive. Also, the A’s made a fluke of a double play in the fifth inning in which J.D. Martinez flew out to Yonder Alonso. Ian Kinsler, stationed at third base, faked a tag, but then the ball appeared to get away from catcher Stephen Vogt as Martinez unwittingly stepped in front of the ball in play, causing an interference call which ended the inning.
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