The Athletics’ Sunday afternoon in Minnesota started badly and never really found solid ground. By the time the final out was recorded, the A’s had taken an 11-8 loss to the Twins, dropped the series finale, and finished the road trip with another rough result.
Jeffrey Springs got the start and may have been making one of his final appearances in an Athletics uniform. Minnesota jumped on him right away, scoring three times in the first inning and then sending him to the dugout with one out in the second. It was a tough outing at the worst possible time, and it didn’t do much to help his case with interested teams.
Luis Morales followed and gave the A’s something to work with. The recently recalled right-hander was asked to cover innings, and he did that, working nearly five full frames while allowing two earned runs.
He also struck out five and walked only one. Even so, the damage had already piled up by then, with the Twins ahead 7-0 by the end of the fourth.
At the plate, the Athletics had little going early against Minnesota rookie Connor Prielipp. The left-hander was sharp through five innings, giving up only a walk and a single, and both times the A’s erased the baserunner with double plays.
The breakthrough finally came in the sixth. Nick Kurtz delivered a home run after the A’s put a couple runners on, and that blast helped spark a rally.
Minnesota answered with a run in the bottom half, but the A’s kept pressing in the seventh. With the bases loaded and no outs, they drew a bases-loaded walk, added an RBI groundout, and got an RBI sac fly to cut further into the deficit.
They had a chance to do even more damage in that inning, but couldn’t fully cash in.
The A’s kept chipping away in the late innings, including a pair of runs in the ninth, but the Twins had already done enough and continued to tack on runs against the bullpen along the way. The comeback effort came up short.
The loss left the Athletics at 44-61, and the club is now all but set to be sellers over the next few days. They’ll head home to Sacramento on Monday evening and open a new homestand against the Boston Red Sox. Jack Perkins is scheduled to start for the A’s, with left-hander Payton Tolle lined up for Boston.
In Other News...
As Latest Bullpen Shuffle Says Plenty About Their Pitching Depth
The latest bullpen move for the Athletics says plenty about how theyre trying to sort through their pitching depth. Oakland designated right-hander Geoff Hartlieb for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot after acquiring Scott Blewett from the Cardinals, another sign that the club is still cycling through arms as it looks for workable innings. Hartlieb has spent parts of seven major league seasons trying to stick, and his time with the As this year was uneven enough that the front office moved on quickly.
Hartlieb now enters a five-day window in which he can be traded, placed on waivers or released, and if he clears waivers there is still a layer of uncertainty because of his previous outright status. For Oakland, the transaction is less about one pitcher than the larger picture: every roster spot matters, and the bullpen picture is still fluid as the team keeps rearranging pieces around its newest addition. [Read more 🡒]
A's Make Another Bullpen Move As Pressure Keeps Building
With injuries piling up around Shea Langeliers and Brent Rooker and the club still adjusting after trading Aaron Civale to Chicago, the Athletics kept working the margins of the roster again Monday. Oakland added former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel to the organization and also brought in a reliever from St. Louis for cash considerations, another sign the front office is trying to patch together enough depth while the pitching staff absorbs the latest round of roster churn.
The latest arm could be in position to help sooner rather than later, with the As looking for any reliable option as they head into a stretch that may demand quick answers. Even a modest bullpen move carries extra weight right now, because Oakland does not have the luxury of waiting long for reinforcement and every addition is being evaluated through the lens of immediate need. [Read more 🡒]
Athletics Deadline Hopes Just Took A Brutal Turn
The Athletics deadline picture has darkened fast over the past week, and the skid is now impossible to ignore. They have dropped 23 of their last 29 games and just lost a series to the Twins, a stretch that has left the club searching for answers on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the lineup has been too inconsistent to carry the team, with key hitters unable to provide the kind of steady production that might at least keep the front office in position to think bigger.
Pitching depth has become its own problem, which helps explain why the club turned to Dallas Keuchel on a minor league deal as injuries continue to thin the staff. The bigger blow may be the one hanging over Shea Langeliers, a player who had been viewed as a possible trade chip if the As decided to sell. Losing that kind of flexibility at this point of the summer leaves Oakland with fewer paths to reshape the roster and even fewer reasons to feel good about where the next move is coming from. [Read more 🡒]