With the bullpen receiving the brunt of criticism these days, the A’s other deficiencies are flying under the radar.
However, their starters have to start taking a little pressure off the relief corps. Oakland’s rotation still ranks second in the American League in ERA at 3.47, but the starters’ inability to consistently pitch deeper into games goes hand-in-hand with the bullpen’s struggles.
Jesse Hahn only got through five-plus innings in Monday’s 8-7 loss to the Minnesota Twins, and that marked the fifth time in the past nine games that an A’s starter failed to complete more than five innings. And in another of those games, Drew Pomeranz went just 5 1/3 innings.
Manager Bob Melvin let Hahn stretch out and throw a season-high 104 pitches Monday, 13 more than the right-hander has gone in any other start this season. But when Hahn couldn’t retire the first two hitters in the bottom of the sixth – Kennys Vargas singled and Eduardo Escobar doubled – Melvin made the walk to the mound to get him.
“He hung a curve ball to Escobar,” Melvin said in a brief assessment of Hahn. “Some of the fastballs that normally are sinking down in the zone for him were up today.”
And you know how it played out once reliever RJ Alvarez took the mound. He gave up a game-tying single, a run that wouldn’t have scored (at least at that point) had the infield hit not scooted under Alvarez’s glove. The righty appeared he might avoid further damage when he struck out Danny Santana and retired Brian Dozier on a shallow fly. But Torii Hunter, a longtime A’s nemesis, turned on an inside fastball and lined a three-run homer to left to snap a 5-5 tie and put Minnesota ahead for good.
“It’s frustrating, there’s no hiding it anymore,” said catcher Stephen Vogt, who should have been able to enjoy his five-RBI night a little more. “We’re squaring balls (up) right at people. We’re giving up broken-bat two-RBI doubles. We’re struggling late in games to get people out. It’s just frustrating.”
Obviously the bullpen remains a huge issue, and Melvin said that “a few” relievers weren’t available Monday night. He didn’t say who specifically was down, but it seems that Dan Otero was one. He had pitched five days in a row coming into Monday.
It’s a dicey situation right now as Melvin tries to push the right buttons to get a lead to Evan Scribner in the eighth, and then to interim closer Tyler Clippard in the ninth. But that plays into the starters needing to eat up more innings.
The A’s rank third in the AL in innings pitched by their rotation (158.0), but the recent body of work doesn’t reflect that. Beyond Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir, each start feels like a question mark right now. Hahn and Pomeranz need to show they can take a lead deeper into games, and Jesse Chavez – Tuesday’s starter – is still trying to establish himself after recently switching from relieving to starting.
Rotation help should be on the way soon with Jarrod Parker working his way back from Tommy John surgery. Right now, Parker is on target to return by the end of this month. It’s possible that a month or so after him, AJ Griffin also returns from Tommy John surgery.
But how well does Oakland’s pitching hold up until then?
That’s an extremely important question as the A’s try to avoid falling too deep in the AL West standings.
