Game #107: A’s Swept, Wrap Up 4-3 Road Trip
The A’s starting pitching was awful for three straight games, but the A’s, as a team, still only gave up ten total runs in three games in Coors Field, against a Rockies team that has had the third best record in baseball during the time period in which the A’s have had the best record in baseball. The team lost all three games, because the A’s offense only scored four. The Rockies were, far and away, the better team this series. The A’s will have to get their revengeance in Colorado against them in the World Series, lest the team be unable to return to Coors Field for five more years.
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Matt Chapman went 5-11 in this series, and today he hit a slick home run to left field to put the A’s on the board. The home run was his thirteenth of the season, and as the AL’s version of Nolan Arenado, it’s relieving that the A’s marquee player got to excel while playing in front of thousands of intrigued and skeptical fans as well as his old high school teammate. Khris Davis also homered in this game, his long ball going the opposite way and just clearing the right-center field wall. That home run was Davis’ twenty eighth of the year, amongst the most in the majors. Both home runs today were with the bases empty.
That was about it for the offense. The team had bad at bats all day up and down the lineup, particularly from the heart of the order, and, unlike in Texas where no deficit felt too great, it felt as though the A’s needed lucky breaks just to have baserunners for the entire series.
In the sixth inning, the Rockies made three spectacular plays in the field to rob the A’s of three potential hits and retired the side in order. In the seventh, Nolan Arenado did a Matt Chapman impression and squanched an A’s rally with a mind-defying double play. The A’s could have scored in either of those two innings, but then again they could have scored in a lot of other innings, too, so despite the four or more base hits robbed in two innings, victory probably wasn’t in the cards anyhow.
Frankie Montas wasn’t really good again. On the one hand, he struck out six batters in four-plus innings, which far exceeds his average of just-over five batters struck out for every nine innings pitched. On the other hand, he gave up eight hits, almost all of which were extremely hard contact, two walks, and three runs total while averaging well over twenty pitches per inning. His stuff was completely flat and the strong Rockies lineup feasted on meatballs. Even the outs were loud and threatening.
The bullpen was good, and kept the game close, as they had the previous couple of nights, and also now Treinen, Buchter, and Familia will all be fully rested and recovered as none of the three relievers were used at all this series.
A 4-3 road trip is still good, no matter how a team gets there. Also, Houston also got swept. By Texas, the team that the A’s just swept prior to this series. The A’s are definitely winning the World Series.