A struggling team such as the Oakland Athletics operates with
little margin for error. One big mistake from starting pitcher
Dallas Braden was more than the Athletics could recover from
Wednesday night in a 5-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at the
Rogers Center. Braden hung a fourth-inning slider to Travis Snider,
who belted a three-run homer that turned a 2-1 Athletics lead into
a 4-2 deficit they couldn’t recover from.
TORONTO
A struggling team such as the Oakland Athletics operates with little margin for error.
One big mistake from starting pitcher Dallas Braden was more than the Athletics could recover from Wednesday night in a 5-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Center.
Braden hung a fourth-inning slider to Travis Snider, who belted a three-run homer that turned a 2-1 Athletics lead into a 4-2 deficit they couldn’t recover from.
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That’s because Oakland mustered just six hits against right-hander Jesse Litsch (1-0) and two relievers. The A’s looked at six called third strikes among their 10 strikeouts.
They’re assured of losing this three-game series, which appeared the easiest assignment on a nine-game trip that includes stops against the defending American League Central-champion Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox.
The A’s 1-4 start has already put them 4 1/2 games behind the Texas Rangers in the A.L. West. Texas is the A.L.’s only unbeaten team at 6-0.
“We need to get a win this series, for sure,” A’s left fielder Josh Willingham said. “We’re not feeling any pressure, but it would just be nice to get a few wins going and get a little momentum.”
Braden pitched into the eighth inning, scattering 10 hits and getting charged with five runs.
His performance is crucial if Oakland’s starting rotation is to approach last year’s level of excellence.
Braden carried a 5.24 ERA during the spring and was given an extra day off in preparation for Wednesday’s start to iron out some kinks.
He particularly wanted to work on his slider, and it was that pitch that bit him in the bottom of the fourth. Braden (0-1) left a 2-1 slider belt-high and Snider smacked it over the right-field wall.
“They just got a big hit, obviously, a three-run homer, and we never quite recovered from it,” A’s manager Bob Geren said.
Snider’s homer came after the A’s had just taken a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth on Hideki Matsui’s two-run double. It was a liner into the right field corner, about the hardest ball Matsui has hit going back to the start of spring training.
“The biggest disappointment is when your team goes out there and gives you the lead, you want to sustain it,” Braden said. “And that didn’t happen.”
Braden said he felt he used his slider effectively for much of the game. And he did well to escape a fifth-inning jam. Yunel Escobar wound up with a one-out triple when A’s right fielder David DeJesus lost Escobar’s line drive in the lights. But Braden retired Adam Lind and Aaron Hill on pop-ups to keep the A’s within a run, 4-3.
But after combining for 23 hits in their previous two games, the A’s didn’t make much noise against Litsch. And the called third strikes were contagious.
“He was keeping the ball down, and the umpire (Lance Barksdale) was giving him the ‘down’ strike,” Willingham said.
Geren gave Andy LaRoche a start at third base in place of Kevin Kouzmanoff, who was in need of a day off after committing three errors through the first four games.
LaRoche was 1 for 3. He made a backhanded stop on Escobar’s grounder in the first, then short-hopped a long throw that Daric Barton couldn’t scoop at first, but it was a difficult play and ruled a hit.
Geren said Kouzmanoff would return to third for Thursday’s series finale.
— Story by Joe Stiglich, Contra Costa Times
