A’s drop series finale, 3-2

Impressive pitching effort from Osvaldo Bido and the bullpen gets one upped by the Dodgers staff

The blistering A’s offense that greeted fans out of the All-Star Game break is beginning to cool down. Heading into this evenings rubber-match against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the A’s had been shutout in two of their last three chances.

While today wasn’t a shutout, the A’s offense was silent a majority of the affair. In fact, they scored both of their runs in the first then proceeded to scatter just four hits — one of them aided heavily by the sun — for the rest of the game. Credit the Dodgers staff also as they were able to hold on to the 3-2 victory by the skin of their teeth largely due to a dominant bullpen effort.

The Dodgers struck first thanks to a first-inning two-run double off the bat of Kiké Hernandez, but Brent Rooker wasted no time tying things back up in the bottom half.

With that two-run shot, Dodgers starter River Ryan had doubled the amount of runs surrendered in his previous two starts. He’d settle in nicely over the next few innings, however.

The Dodgers grabbed the lead right back in the third when Cavan Biggio lined an RBI single up the middle, but that’d be the last runs surrendered by Osvaldo Bido and in the game overall.

The A’s had a golden opportunity to tie things up and possibly even more in the fifth. With two outs and the bases loaded, Ryan was removed for Evan Phillips to face the red-hot Rooker. Rooker would lose this battle as Phillips spun a perfect sweeper on the inside half to strike him out looking.

Bido pitched out of a difficult jam himself in the sixth, and his day would end on the 100th pitch resulting in a strikeout. Overall, Bido went six innings allowing six hits, three earned, three walks and six strikeouts. He gave the A’s more than enough of a chance to compete for a win today, but the offense could never cash through with the big hit.

Former Athletic Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Daniel Hudson and Anthony Banda bridged the gap seamlessly from the sixth inning on each working a scoreless frame. All four combined to give up just one hit while striking out five.

Not to be outdone was the effort of the A’s bullpen also; they were tremendous in their own regard this evening. Michel Otanez struck out two over a scoreless inning of work including a punch-out of Shohei Ohtani who had a pair in four at-bats. Austin Adams and Tyler Ferguson backed it up with stress-free scoreless innings themselves.

But again, the A’s bats spoiled a great effort from up-and-down the pitching staff. Four hitters had two or more strikeouts also as the A’s have now scored just two runs in their last 21 innings of play.

The A’s have lost their first series since the All-Star Game break but they’ll have a perfect chance to rebound as the Chicago White Sox come to town tomorrow for a three-game set. The White Sox made history earlier today becoming the first team in 36 years to lose 20 consecutive games. Their last victory came on July 10 and they’re currently on pace to go 39-123.

Jonathan Cannon is set to take the ball for the White Sox against JP Sears for the A’s at 6:40 PM PDT.