MILWAUKEE — The A’s dropped in to Miller Park for a quick two-game series and left without making much of a disturbance.
Their two losses to the Brewers, including Wednesday’s 4-0 blanking, were marked by their most meager offensive showing over back-to-back games in recent memory. Oakland combined for just four runs during the mini-sweep, but that doesn’t tell the full story.
The A’s were no-hit through at least the first five innings of both games. And though they pushed four runs across in Tuesday’s game, the accurate reflection of their series offensively was that they collected base hits in just five of the 18 innings played.
Right-hander Chase Anderson (4-6) limited them to two hits over 6 2/3 innings Wednesday. Meanwhile, A’s starter Jesse Hahn struggled mightily for the second outing in a row. He gave up four runs on eight hits and was pulled after 3 2/3 innings. In two starts on this road trip, Hahn (2-4) pitched a total of just 4 1/3 innings while allowing 11 earned runs and 14 hits. His overall ERA rose to 6.49
But even if Hahn had his best stuff, it wouldn’t have mattered with the A’s producing so little at the plate.
The A’s have lost a season-high tying five in a row on the heels of a five-game winning streak, as they move on to Cincinnati for a three-game series that completes this road trip.
Starting pitching report:
Hahn just isn’t missing enough bats right now. And even balls that aren’t hit hard seem to be finding holes. The Brewers plated single runs in the first and second to take an early lead. In the fourth, the bases were loaded with two outs when Scooter Gennett blooped a two-run single to right that chased Hahn from the game.
A revealing stat: Hahn is allowing a .457 average (16-for-35) to batters leading off an inning. On Wednesday, three of four leadoff hitters singled off him and all eventually came around to score.
Bullpen report:
In an ongoing theme, manager Bob Melvin had to burn through more bullpen arms than he’d prefer. Ryan Dull, Daniel Coulombe, John Axford and Marc Rzepczynski combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
At the plate:
It wasn’t like the A’s ran into a buzzsaw of dominant starting pitching. Both Tuesday starter Zach Davies and Anderson entered this series with ERAs north of 4.50. But though the A’s rallied late Tuesday to put a scare in the Brewers, they couldn’t put up any sort of fight Wednesday with the bats. Their first hit came from Jake Smolinski with one out in the sixth, then Jed Lowrie and Billy Burns notched the other two.
In the field:
At least the A’s didn’t commit an error.
Attendance:
A crowd of 18,188 was on hand.
Up next:
After taking Thursday off — their third day off in the past eight — the A’s begin a three-game series at Cincinnati on Friday. In the opener, Sonny Gray (3-5, 5.77) will oppose Anthony DeSclafani (0-0, 0.00), with a 4:10 first pitch. On Saturday, Kendall Graveman (2-6, 5.49) matches up against former Athletic Dan Straily (3-2, 3.34) at 1:10 p.m. The finale pits Sean Manaea (2-4, 6.20) against lefty John Lamb (1-3, 5.58) at 10:10 a.m. All three games will air on CSN California.
