Takeaways: A’s lineup is “a little bit relentless right now”
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OAKLAND — Naturally, the A’s have been able to put up a ton of runs in a win streak that is now up to 10 in completed games. What may have been overlooked in this stretch, though, is how often they’ve been able to tamp down opposing lineups.
But on Monday in a 8-5 Memorial Day victory over the Los Angeles Angels at the Coliseum, it was important for the A’s to not only score, but to keep adding to their lead.
So even after Josh Phegley homered in the fifth inning to give the A’s a 4-3 lead, Stephen Piscotty’s two-run single later in the inning, Matt Chapman’s solo home run in the seventh and Matt Canha’s RBI single in the eighth all played a role in keeping Oakland perfect since a May 14 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
“Each one of those late in the game, especially when it was a one-run game, to add on ends being huge,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “A little bit relentless right now with how we’re going about our business.”
Monday’s game was just the third time since the loss to the Mariners that the A’s have allowed four or more runs. In this stretch, which includes their May 19 suspended game against Detroit when they held a 5-3 lead, the A’s have outscored teams 78-31.
Relievers Yusmeiro Petit, Ryan Buchter, Lou Trivino, Joakim Soria and Blake Treinen combined to throw four scoreless inning to lock down the victory, as the A’s win streak in completed games is their longest since they also captured 10 straight from June 8-18, 2006.
Some takeaways from Monday:
1. Lineup continues to be a nightmare for opposing pitchers: Seven of the nine hitters in the A’s lineup Monday had at least one hit, with Robbie Grossman, Chapman and Piscotty combining for six hits and four RBI. But even the bottom half of the lineup has been sizzling of late.
Canha, Jurickson Profar, Ramón Laureano and Phegley each had a hit and combined for the other four RBI. Laureano, for instance, went 5-for-11 in the just-completed three-game series against Seattle and went 1-for-4 on Monday to extend his career-high hit streak to 10 games. Phegley, now that he’s catching on a more regular basis, has been a menace at the bottom of the order.
Laureano hit eighth Monday. Coming into the game, the No. 8 hitter in the A’s lineup were batting a combined .292 with an OPS of .875, marks that both rank third in Major League Baseball.
“It can be a relentless lineup. Top, middle, bottom,” Melvin said. “Somebody gets a day to play, somebody gets an opportunity to play like Mark Canha, look what he’s doing with it. We have a very deep offensive lineup when we’re swinging like that.”
Coming into Monday, the A’s had 10 players with five or more home runs, matching the Minnesota Twins for most in the majors. They also have 10 players with at least 15 RBI.
2. Phegley is looking like your everyday A’s catcher, or close to it: Phegley homered for the second straight game Monday and now has 32 RBI in 42 games. His home run against the Angels was his 19th RBI this month. He had 25 in 96 games all of last season.
“Whenever Josh is an everyday guy, he hits,” A’s starter Chris Bassitt said, “and people are seeing that. He’s going to hit home runs, he’s going to hit just because it’s really hard to hit when you’re a backup catcher. He’s been behind an All-Star in (Stephen) Vogt for a couple years and obviously he was behind (Jonathan) Lucroy last year.
“This was kind of sitting in the wings for us, and he’s finally kind of proving to everyone why he should be an everyday guy.”
Beyond the offense, Phegley continues to throw out would-be stealers at a solid rate. Before Monday, he had allowed 23 stolen bases, but had also thrown out nine runners, tied for fourth-most in MLB.
Phegley threw out Shohei Ohtani attempting to steal second base to end the top of the seventh with the A’s leading 6-5. It was Ohtani’s first attempted stolen base this season after he stole 10 bags last year.
“Phegley just made a great throw,” Melvin said. “That’s something that’s always come with Josh Phegley is the throwing arm. You feel like you have a good chance to shut down the running game.”
3. Bassitt not great, but better than his last outing: Bassitt allowed six hits and a season-high five earned runs in five-plus innings, a mild bounce back from his last outing May 21 against Cleveland.
Monday, Bassitt gave two doubles to Kole Calhoun, one to David Fletcher and a solo home run to Albert Pujols. He still had some control issues with one wild pitch and two hit batters, but allowed just two walks compared to the eight he gave up against the Indians in 3 2/3 innings. Bassitt said he’s having some fatigue issues right now.
“It usually doesn’t last more than one or two starts,” he said. “My arm feels great, but it’s just a whole body thing.”
Mike Trout was 0-for-2 with a walk against Bassitt and finished the game 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, leaving one runner on base.
“Trout gets himself out. Nothing works with Mike Trout,” Bassitt said. “He’s the greatest hitter in the league. It’s pretty much throw things around the zone and get lucky.”