Lowrie, A’s stay hot, rally past Diamondbacks to complete sweep
PHOENIX, Ariz. — His shirt simply read “The Kid” in the upper left-hand corner, an homage to Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. But when Oakland A’s second baseman Jed Lowrie’s shirt was pointed out during the A’s postgame Zoom call on Monday night, the 36-year-old took the opportunity to joke that it had a deeper meaning.
“I’m trying to trick them,” he said with an ear-to-ear smile. “They might think I’m younger than I am.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Lowrie was a force to be reckoned with as the A’s extended their winning streak to four games with a 7-5 win over the Diamondbacks.
In the top of the seventh, Lowrie blasted an opposite-field, three-run home run to tie the score at five. Oakland took the lead an inning later on Seth Brown’s solo home run, and never looked back to improve to 5-7 after opening the season with six straight losses.
Now in the infancy stages of his 13th Major League season, Lowrie will turn 37 on April 17. He and A’s manager Bob Melvin have said on multiple occasions that Lowrie may not play every day, a move aimed to preserve his body and accommodate him as he gets deeper into his lengthy career.
There were no signs of age on Tuesday, though. Lowrie made his 12th appearance of the season in the A’s 12th game. He extended his hitting streak to five games and on-base streak to nine with two hits and a walk. The oldest hitter on the A’s roster has been their most productive this season. His 11 RBI are the most on the club.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Melvin said. “Maybe he’s fresh from two years but the bat looks the same as we’ve seen it and he’s actually moving around the field pretty well. He’s been durable to this point and gotten huge hits. Can’t say enough about his contributions.”
Without Lowrie’s late-game blast and the second career homer by Brown, who started at first base with Matt Olson sitting out of the lineup due to a left thumb contusion hand, Tuesday’s game would have likely had an entirely different outcome. Oakland left five runners on base in the first three innings of the game and recorded just one baserunner in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings combined. Entering the top of the seventh, the A’s trailed 5-1.
Between a lackluster showing at the plate in the first six innings and a poor start from Jesus Luzardo, Tuesday looked bleak for Oakland.
After surrendering three runs in the bottom of the second, Luzardo gave up three straight hits to start the bottom of the third, which eventually turned into two more Arizona runs and marked the end of Luzardo’s outing after just 2.2 innings.
Including Tuesday’s appearance, Luzardo has allowed more earned runs than all but one American League pitcher. His ERA climbed to 8.31. His WHIP sits at an unprepossessing 2.00.
“Just a little off,” Melvin said. “They had him on the run. Obviously, the three-run homer hurt. He just hung a breaking ball. Just a little bit off today.”
At the beginning of the season, Luzardo said that he planned to work on throwing his four-seam fastball more instead of his sinker. It’s a project that hasn’t exactly taken shape yet.
“The first game I did that,” he said. “The second game I started doing more sinkers, then this game I was mostly sinkers again.
“I don’t think much was working, to be honest with you. My fastball command wasn’t there which was key.”
Luzardo isn’t the only A’s starter struggling in the first weeks of the season.
Entering play on Tuesday, A’s starters had a 6.14 ERA, the third-worst mark in the Majors. They also struck opposing teams out at a rate of just 7.60, the fourth-lowest in MLB and the lowest among AL teams.
As far as pitching goes, it was the A’s bullpen that played hero on Tuesday. After Luzardo was removed, Oakland relievers delivered 6.1 scoreless innings of relief highlighted by three excellent innings from righty Doelis Guerra in which he allowed just one hit and struck out five. Righty Lou Trivino pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth to earn his first save since 2018.
“The bullpen did a great job,” Luzardo said. “We really couldn’t do it without them.”
Outside of Oakland’s walk-off win against the Dodgers on April 7, Tuesday’s game may have been their most complete late-game performance this season. The pitching held strong and Lowrie, Brown and others provided enough offensive spark to take the lead.
They’ll have a chance to keep their momentum going with a four-game homestand against Detroit starting Thursday.
“I knew this was going to happen,” Brown said of the A’s hot streak. “It doesn’t surprise me at all. This team is so gritty and the determination out of these guys, the level is so high coming out and battling every day. I knew it was a matter of time … I think we’re a World Series team in my eyes.”