Luis Morales gave up seven earned runs in two innings Friday night, and Ben Bowden's arrival signals the organization is preparing for a prolonged fix.
Friday night's game had an ugly final score of 13-1 in favor of the visiting Detroit Tigers, but entering the eighth inning, it was still a tightly contested 2-1 ballgame.
Brady Basso worked two scoreless innings for the Athletics, but to begin his third inning he gave up a double, a single, and another double to lead off the eighth inning, which led A's manager Mark Kotsay to go to Luis Morales. The righty ended up allowing eight runs (seven earned) in his two innings of work on 47 pitches.
"We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board with Morales," Kotsay said after Friday's game. "[We've] identified some things that he's doing, that he may be tipping his pitches."
Kotsay added that they're still looking for execution of the pitches, even with his velocity sitting around 97 mph. Too often the pitches that get hammered have been down the middle of the plate.
"There's still a lot for Morales to do from a standpoint of just making adjustments," Kotsay added.
Morales has struggled all season long with the A's. He went into last night's game with an ERA above 10 already, and giving up seven earned runs over two innings only ballooned that to 13.50 across 16 total innings this season. Part of his problem has been execution, as Kotsay noted, with the righty giving up 14 walks — nearly one per inning.
The other big glaring issue has been the number of home runs he's given up, seven, in those 16 innings. His 2.56 WHIP is indicative of a guy that isn't fooling anybody when he's on the mound.
On Saturday, Morales was optioned back to Triple-A Las Vegas. Left-hander Ben Bowden will make his season debut after time in the organization's minor-league system this season. Bowden pitched 10 ⅔ innings for the A's last season and held a 4.22 ERA with a 1.31 WHIP.
This season with the Las Vegas Aviators, Bowden has held a 5.40 ERA across 36 ⅔ innings. Last year, in a similar number of innings, he had a 1.36 ERA. The numbers would seem to suggest that he's not throwing the ball quite as well as he was last season.
His strikeout rate has ticked up to 28.7% and his walk rate is down to 9.6%, but his BABIP has jumped 50 points over last season, up to .310 this year, and he's given up nine home runs with Vegas, compared to just one a year ago.
The A's as a team are just looking for anyone that can record some outs on this roster. The starting staff has pitched better in the second half, holding a 3.96 ERA. That's good enough to rank them 13th in MLB since the break. Meanwhile, the bullpen has been the worst in baseball during that same period, posting an 8.75 ERA.
They let late leads slip away against the Red Sox repeatedly to begin the homestand, and last night the bullpen took a manageable one-run deficit and turned it into a 13-1 blowout.
Bowden may not be the answer, but internally the A's are bracing for a longer search. Right now they're looking at waiver wire and minor-league depth and will keep cycling through arms until something sticks.
