Game #98: A’s take care of business against Mariners
Comfortable 4-1 win to open road series
The Oakland A’s have let some games slip away lately, but they played like a full contender on Thursday, and not a moment too soon.
The A’s visited the Seattle Mariners and breezed to a 4-1 victory, putting some distance in the standings between them and their closest competitor for the Wild Card spot.
*** Click here to revisit tonight’s Game Thread! ***
As has been the case all year, Oakland’s evening began with a brilliant starting pitching performance. Sean Manaea faced the Mariners in June and threw a shutout, and he extended that scoreless streak against Seattle to 15 innings before finally blinking in the 7th tonight.
The lefty was almost literally unhittable. He faced 28 batters and struck out a career-high 13 of them, and during the first six frames the Mariners only reached second base once and never third. The only damage against him was a solo homer by catcher Tom Murphy leading off the 7th, cutting the A’s advantage to 2-1 at the time.
- Manaea: 7 ip, 1 run, 13 Ks, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 3 hits, 106 pitches, 90.2 mph EV
Seattle did knock a few balls hard when they managed to make contact, but that was a rare feat in itself and pretty much everything that deserved to fall for a hit did so. Manaea dominated, for the second time in as many tries against this AL West division rival.
How hard did he dominate? His 13 strikeouts are the most in a game by an A’s lefty since Vida Blue in 1976, reports official scorer David Feldman, and Manaea is the first A’s pitcher of either hand to rack up 13 strikeouts while allowing one run or fewer since Todd Stottlemyre in 1995 (per MLB Stats).
Career-high 13 strikeouts.
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) July 23, 2021
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7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 13 K pic.twitter.com/rwIt66rxqg
But as we’re all acutely award, it ain’t over until the other team gets a crack at your bullpen. Fortunately tonight Oakland’s relievers were nearly perfect, retiring six of the seven batters they faced with only a groundball single mixed in. The 8th inning went to Sergio Romo, who is officially good again if you hadn’t noticed and might even be the team’s best setup man right now, and the 9th went to Lou Trivino for the save.
After also silencing the Angels earlier this week, the A’s staff has allowed just two runs total over their last three games combined. Even better, their lineup is beginning to offer support again.
More details coming, including the A’s scoring. Keep hitting refresh!