A’s lose 8th straight, fall to Royals in series finale

Things aren’t going great right now

The Athletics just can’t shake this bad vibe right now. The club finished its series against the Royals with another loss, getting swept by Kansas City in the series finale by a finale of 8-4 and securing the team’s 8th straight loss.

Left-hander JP Sears got the ball for today’s start and provided what he always does: quality innings while giving the offense a chance to win this game. It didn’t start well as he allowed a pair of runs in the first inning but he settled in. The highlight for him today was easily in the third inning. After allowing a 1-out triple to Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. it felt like KC would tack onto their lead but Sears came through with a big strikeout of Royals legend Salvador Perez. A fly out later and Sears would strand BWJ at third, escaping unharmed.

The offense meanwhile wasn’t pulling its weight. Facing Kansas City’s #1 starter Brady Singer, the bats couldn’t manage much over the first few innings except getting hit by a pitch (thank you for your service Max Shuemann). They finally figured Singer out after one time through the batting order, getting to him in the fourth inning. On the board today thanks to star prospect Tyler Soderstrom:

That RBI double continues a good stretch for Soderstrom recently. Since he’s being used almost exclusively as a first baseman, he needs to provide some production with his bat. And now the former 1st round draft pick is doing that for the Athletics.

Though Sears settled in, he started running out of gas in the fifth inning. A walk and RBI double ended up chasing Sears from today’s start, and that second batter would score and be charged to him.

-JP Sears: 4 ¹⁄₃ IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 65 pitches

Not his best line of the season but it doesn’t tell the full story from Sears’ day. A tough beginning but some quality work after that. One could argue that the hook came too early for the lefty today considering he was only at 65 pitches but manager Mark Kotsay felt differently. The bullpen was relatively available so Kotsay felt alright dipping into it a bit early today.

Righty Austin Adams took over for Sears and allowed a sac fly to make it 4-1 Royals. Down but not out of this one yet.

That was, until the next inning. Rookie reliever Tyler Ferguson took over to start the sixth inning and was hit hard. He allowed just two hits and two walks but the Royals made them count, with the big hit being a bases-clearing triple that really sealed today’s outcome.

Lefty Kyle Muller handled the seventh inning and only allowed a single. Then star reliever Mason Miller got an inning of work in during the eighth, just to get him some work. He hasn’t had many closing opportunities recently after all.

The offense meanwhile just couldn’t get much of anything going, whether it be against Singer or the Kansas City bullpen. The A’s finally scored more in the ninth thanks to Brent Rooker’s 11th home run of the season. Langeliers followed that up with a single to inject a little hopium into A’s fans but Soderstrom struck out to end the game, securing the team’s seventh straight loss.

Owch. Not a great series for the club. Getting swept out of Kansas City isn’t what the club was hoping for and the team went 1-9 on the road trip. Thankfully it’s over though and now the team returns to the friendly confines of the Coliseum. They’ll have a day off on Monday before getting back to it on Tuesday as they host the Colorado Rockies for a three game series. Things kick off with righty vet Aaron Brooks taking the ball for his second start of the season. He’ll be squaring off against Rockies righty Cal Quantrill. Let’s hope Brooks can spark something and help this team snap this losing skid!