The Athletics’ series finale against the Orioles turned into a harsh lesson in how quickly things can slip away. A game that looked manageable - Oakland led 5-1 heading into the fourth - unraveled into a seven-run swing that summed up a frustrating weekend for a club that had been trending in the right direction.
That collapse didn’t happen in a vacuum. The A’s had already leaned hard on their bullpen earlier in the series, using seven different relievers between the first two games.
By the time Jeffrey Springs took the ball, the margin for error was thin. He wound up needing to cover extra innings to make up for that workload, and the Orioles made sure Oakland paid for it.
Springs’ outing was rough, but the bigger issue was how the series had been managed before he ever settled in on the mound. The A’s knew the bullpen would be tested this way, and still ended up watching a winnable game get away from them. It was the kind of loss that feels especially costly because better choices earlier might have changed the ending.
Springs has also had his own problems. Since the break, he has made six starts and put up a 7.46 ERA with a 1.78 WHIP.
He has allowed seven home runs and a .311 batting average. At this point, the A’s don’t really have the luxury of sending him down, so the burden falls on Springs to find a way to finish the season stronger.
One bright spot from the series was Scott Blewett, who looked sharp against his former team. He worked in two games and logged 3.1 innings, giving up just one hit and one walk while striking out five. Over his last 10.0 innings, Blewett has a 1.80 ERA, with nine hits allowed and 12 strikeouts.
That kind of multi-inning work matters for this team. The Athletics have seen plenty of pitchers catch fire in short bursts, but Blewett’s ability to cover more than an inning at a time gives them something valuable. With a rotation that has been as uneven as Oakland’s, every extra out from the bullpen helps cover up the cracks.
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