A’s drop first half of Twins doubleheader

With their eighth loss in a row, the Oakland A’s have tied their longest losing streak of the season. Fortunately, they won’t have to wait long to get another chance to break it with the second half of their doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins beginning shortly.

It only took the Twins 4 innings to take control of the game, scoring a 4 runs from JP Sears, who had atypically poor command. On top of giving up 9 hits, the southpaw allowed 4 free passes, the most he’s given up this season. Sears was actually lucky to avoid a worse outing given those 13 baserunners and the fact that all 4 runs scored on homers.

Even with Vinny Nittoli cooling things down with 1 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings, the A’s offense wasn’t able to fight back at all until the 7th. Daz Cameron, getting his occasional start, drove a changeup to high and deep to left field for a solo homerun and finally putting an end to Bailey Ober’s strong outing.

However, top prospect Brady Basso, called up to be the A’s 27th man, gave that run back and more in the bottom half of the inning, allowing a two-run shot to Carlos Santana. Oakland rallied back a bit against reliever Cole Sands with a Kyle McCann RBI single, scoring J.D. Davis from second base. Their chances ran out, however, when a challenged Abraham Toro force-out at 1st went against the A’s for the last out of the game.

The series finale starts soon with Joey Estes taking on Chris Paddack, hoping to save the A’s from entering a season-high 9-game losing streak.