Hogan Harris and Elvis Alvarado each unraveled against the Cincinnati Reds, gifting the home team four crucial runs that turned the tide of the series.
The Athletics were swept by the Cincinnati Reds to begin this week, running the team's losing streak to eight games. At 45-70, they are just one game ahead of the Los Angeles Angels, who sold heavily at the deadline and didn't expect to be competitive this season.
The A's, on the other hand, were hopeful that they'd be challenging for a postseason berth in September, and even spent 36 days alone in first place earlier this season. The A's haven't won a series since they played a week in Las Vegas, running a streak of 12 straight series losses for the first time in 110 years.
The A's played a tough series, losing all three games by one run. But unlike the series at home against the Boston Red Sox last week when there were some moral victories against a hot team, the Reds series felt more winnable.
In the first game, the A's held a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth with Hogan Harris pitching. Harris is arguably the A's most unflappable reliever, and even after a pair of leadoff walks, he recorded two quick outs while the runners advanced to second and third.
Then, reaching back for a little extra with an 0-2 count on Eugenio Suarez, Harris uncorked a wild pitch to the backstop that tied the game. Four pitches later, Harris missed the zone again, with a second wild pitch that clanked off catcher Jonah Heim and squirted away for the go-ahead run.
That was the A's first loss of the series, with a second one-run loss on Wednesday, 3-2.
On Thursday, they unfortunately matched the same energy as the first game.
After Mason Barnett loaded the bases with the game tied 3-3, Elvis Alvarado came on in relief needing two outs to escape the jam. Like Harris, he got the second out of the inning, but then Alvarado walked the next two batters he faced, throwing one strike in nine pitches and putting the Reds up 5-3.
New A's reliever Seth Johnson allowed a home run to JJ Bleday to put Cincinnati up 6-3, and Brian Serven would crush a two-run homer in the ninth for the A's, but they yet again came up short.
"I can't explain what happened. I really can't," A's manager Mark Kotsay said of Alvarado's fifth inning struggles. "It's a situation where he needs to be in attack mode. He needs to go right after [Suarez] and throw strikes. If we get beat with a base hit there, that's different than walking the next two guys and giving them two runs."
Injuries have played a part of those recent struggles. At the end of June the injury bug found the Athletics, and it has not let go. The A's are now without DH Brent Rooker and right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. for the rest of the season. Shea Langeliers and Luis Severino could end up playing a few more games later this year, but they won't be pushed to do so.
Nick Kurtz won't be back on the field until he's healed from his thumb injury, and there is no timeline for that recovery time. The same goes for rookie Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, who ruptured a testicle.
Zack Gelof has missed time, but is on a rehab assignment right now, while both Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom are playing banged up. All of these injuries have come in the past six weeks, which is the exact timeframe that the A's have completely fallen apart. Without those bats, the struggling pitching staff has much less wiggle room to work with game after game.
It's clear that the club isn't close to 100%, and those little lapses from the bullpen in this series just continued the same tone that has been set of late.
"It's about executing and being able to make big-league plays," Kotsay said. "Make big-league pitches and win ballgames. Right now we're struggling with that. Until we figure that out, we're going to have to continue to just grind. The effort level is there."
