A’s blown out again, fall to Dodgers 19-2

Not a great way to end the series

For the second time in two nights the A’s got punched in the mouth by the Los Angeles Dodgers, losing tonight in an embarrassing 19-2 contest that drops the Athletics back to the .500 mark for the first time since April 29th. Time to turn our sights on San Francisco.

The A’s were facing a favorable matchup on offense as the Dodgers had rookie right-hander Matt Sauer make his first career major league start. Things started well enough as back-to-back walks from Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom to start the game were soon followed by Shea Langeliers’ sixth double of the season, driving in Wilson:

Soderstrom couldn’t make it from third and would ultimately be stranded but the A’s drew first blood and had the early lead.

Los Angeles didn’t wait around to answer back. Athletics right-hander Osvaldo Bido started the game as strong as one can by striking out Shohei Ohtani on his bobblehead night. From there things fell apart pretty quickly. A walk and RBI single knotted this game before Max Muncy (not ours) launched a two-run home run to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead after one inning.

The A’s got one of those runs back in the top of the next inning when infielder Max Schuemann, playing second base tonight, took a hanging sinker down the middle and drove it over the center field wall for his first home run of the year:

That would be as close as the Athletics would come tonight. The A’s bats would go into hibernation after that as they worked just one more walk (Shuemann) and collected one more single (Langeliers) over the final seven innings in this one.

Not that it ultimately mattered. Los Angeles chased Bido in the bottom half of the frame and added on three more runs to make it 6-2. Long man Jason Alexander came on in relief and got torched for nine runs over the next two innings, including two to Ohtani. That meltdown effectively ended the game but there were still five more innings to go. Luckily for the Athletics right-hander Mitch Spence was able to pitch three frames to help save the rest of the bullpen for the weekend, allowing a run but ultimately soaking up innings in a surefire loss. The A’s would even go with backup catcher Jhonny Pereda for the bottom of the eighth inning and he allowed a trio of runs to push the Dodgers’ total to 19. On the fun side of things, he also struck out Ohtani:

Well that was an embarrassing loss, even more so than last night’s blowout. They Athletics were out of this one from the jump and nothing went right on either side of the ball. Bido lasted just 49 pitches, Alexander let this game get way out of hand, and only two players in the entire lineup got on base. The only positives from tonight were Max Shuemann (1-for-2, BB, HR), Shea Langeliers (2-for-3, RBI), and Mitch Spence (3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER). Everyone else either went hitless or got hit hard. The team is now 22-22 and everyone needs to step their game up this weekend if they want to avoid falling under the .500 threshold.

Time to flush this series. The team will now head north as they head to the Bay Area to take on the San Francisco Giants in their return to the area they once called home. The team will march out left-hander JP Sears to kick the series off while the Giants will counter with their longtime ace Logan Webb. Should be a good one!