Oakland A’s starter struggles in blowout loss to Milwaukee Brewers
OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s were blown out at the Coliseum on Friday night as a rare poor performance from left-handed starter JP Sears, along with some defensive miscues and a sputtering offense, led to an 11-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Rhys Hoskins and Joey Ortiz hit back-to-back home runs as part of a five-run second inning for red-hot Milwaukee, which opened its three-game set in Oakland before an announced crowd of 14,031.
The Brewers, who have won seven of nine, sent nine batters to the plate in the second to take a 5-1 lead.
Hoskins, who entered the game hitless in his last 21 at-bats, put Milwaukee in front with a three-run blast after Willy Adames and Gary Sánchez led off the inning with singles. On the next pitch, Ortiz homered to left-center.
Andruw Monasterio later added the fifth run, scoring from first on a single by Jackson Chourio that went under the glove of A’s left fielder Miguel Andujar.
Chourio and Blake Perkins knocked in runs in the fourth, extending the lead to 7-1. Sánchez cleared the bases with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hoskins in the ninth.
The A’s managed just one hit after the fourth inning.
“Offensively, we got pretty much shut down,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Their bullpen is pretty good, and we saw that tonight. They pounded the zone, there’s some velo in the back end.
“It’s important to keep games close. It’s important to get out with leads and tonight, we weren’t able to do that.”
Neither starter lasted five innings. The Brewers’ Aaron Civale allowed three runs in four innings, and Sears (10-9) left with two outs in the third after giving up five earned runs. Sears had entered the game 3-0 with a 1.57 ERA over his last four starts.
“I just feel like I didn’t really throw my changeup that well today,” Sears said, “and then just left some fastballs over the middle of the plate.”
Sears had tossed at least seven innings in each of his last four starts, which was the longest streak of consecutive games of seven or more innings by an A’s pitcher since Sonny Gray also had a four-game streak from July 22 to Aug. 7, 2015.
“It’s hard to keep that going,” Sears said. “My goal out there is to do what I’ve been doing these past four outings. Obviously, those have been really good, and I’ve been proud of them. But basically, it’s about the next day, and I care more about how my season ends and how I pitch the next time (I’m) out there than the past.”
Ross Stripling pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Sears. Bryan Hudson (6-1) got the win with two scoreless innings after Civale exited.
Lawrence Butler led off the game with a homer for the A’s. He added a second RBI in the fourth to trim the deficit to 7-3.
The A’s committed two errors in the loss as two of Milwaukee’s 11 runs were unearned. Before Friday, the A’s had committed 37 errors in their last 85 games dating back to May 14, which is tied for fourth fewest in the majors.
UP NEXT
RHP Joe Boyle (3-5, 6.21 ERA) is scheduled to start for the A’s in the second game of the series, with RHP Colin Rea (11-4, 3.52 ERA) slated to pitch for the Brewers.