That was grim. Chris Bassitt had a rough day, which happens, but the offence was also entirely absent against a not-great pitcher in J.P. Sears until it was effectively over. Vlad also ended his hitting streak with a terrible day at the plate, grounding in to a pair of double plays. After his last couple of months you can’t get mad at one bad day, but it was quite bad.
This one was over before it really began. The first three A’s Chris Bassitt faced doubled, singled, and homered, putting Oakland on top 3-0 before an out was recorded. Bassitt then hit a batter and, after he did get a strikeout, gave up the second homer of the inning to increase the deficit to 5. A double, a walk, and a single combined to plate a sixth before he was finally able to escape the inning.
To his credit, Bassit was able to stay out there three more innings, giving up just one more run, which at least averted catastrophe for the bullpen. It was a grim outing overall, though, with 7 runs, all earned, on eight hits, a pair of walks and a hit batter. His season ERA increases from 3.95 to 4.30, which is a huge jump for one game this late in the season.
Ryan Yarbrough came in for long relief, and was only marginally better. He gave up a double in the fifth but escaped without runs. In the sixth, he walked leadoff man Max Schuemann and allowed him to score on a Brent Rooker double for Oakland’s eighth run. JJ Bleday also lined a single that could have added a ninth, but a good throw by Davis Schneider and some bad base running got Rooker caught in a rundown.
Erik Swanson had a solid seventh, conceding a double on a pop up down the right field line that a diving George Springer couldn’t quite hand onto, but no runs while picking up a pair of Ks.
Tommy Nance improved on a rough first Blue Jays outing. He issued a leadoff walk, but it was erased on a double play and then he struck out Rooker to end the inning. He came back to work a 1-2-3 ninth.
The offence, meanwhile, could do nothing at all with J.P. Sears. Daulton Varsho’s solo home run with one out in the fourth was their first man on base and also their first ball hit out of the infield. They didn’t strike out excessively, just four in 7+ innings, but almost nothing was well hit at all. Luis De Lost Santos was credited with his first major league hit in the sixth, which is cool except that it was an extremely obvious error on third baseman Abraham Toro, who couldn’t get the ball out of his glove after fielding a routine grounder, and only counts due to some excessively generous home town scoring. Anyway, it was promptly erased by a double play. Daulton Varsho added another legitimate hit with a line single in the seventh, but Guerrero grounded into another double play. Finally, in the eighth, Spencer Horwitz and Davis Schneider opened the inning with back to back walks and forced Sears from the game.
Facing Michel Otañez with one out, De Los Santos got his legitimate first big league hit, lining a double into the right field corner to score a run and cut the deficit to 8-2. George Springer followed with a single to left, plating Schneider and De Los Santos to cut the deficit to four. Otañez then hit Varsho with 99 square in the knee. He went down in a heap and needed a minute, but was able to stay in the game. The booth was speculating that it was intentional, but I’m not sure it makes sense to hit a guy with no real provocation to put the tieing run on deck. It didn’t cost the A’s, as Guerrero grounded into his second double play of the game.
With the game now close-ish (though not a save situation), the A’s called for Mason Miller to pitch the bottom of the ninth. He sat the Jays down in order.
Jays of the Day: Nobody qualifies, although Varsho deserves a tip of the cap.
The other one: Bassitt (-0.402) kind of sucked up all the negative WPA available, but Vlad (-0.81) deserves a nod for killing off their one real shot at a rally.
They’re off tot he west coast next to face the Angels, before hitting Chicago on the way home to see the Cubs. That will start off tomorrow night at 9:38pm ET. Bowden Francis (4-3, 5.44) will go for the Jays, while Davis Daniel (1-3, 6.04) will represent the halos.