Oakland officially passed last year’s squad’s win totals this afternoon when they beat the New York Mets in the first of three at Citi Field, cruising to a comfortable 9-4 win.
Bats come out hot against former teammate
The A’s came out of the gate hot, scoring the game’s first three runs in the very first inning. Facing former A’s All-Star Paul Blackburn, Oakland loaded the bases with two outs to bring up Seth Brown, and he made his former teammate pay with a bases-clearing double:
It’s been a disappointing season for Brownie and we could be seeing the last days of him in the Green & Gold, but at least he made his one hit on the day count. He’d finish the day 1-for-5 with a couple of strikeouts and is now hitting .209 on the season.
The A’s thankfully didn’t let off the gas in this one too much. A Mets error helped bring in the team’s fourth run, then starting catcher Shea Langeliers came up with the next big knock, a 3-run blast to extend the Oakland lead:
That was just one of four hits that ‘Bangeleirs’ would collect today, including two doubles. He probably won’t catch Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh for the top homer threat among backstops but he’s comfortably in second place in that category. The club would add two more runs in the sixth with RBI hits from Miguel Andujar and Langeliers.
Joe Boyle returns
Oakland welcomed back rookie right-hander Joe Boyle off the IL to make today’s start. There was definitely some rust that Boyle needs to shake off but he flashed his strikeout potential today too, racking up six K’s over his outing. New York tagged him for a run in the second but other than that he was rolling.
That is, until the fifth inning came around. All five batters to lead off the frame got on base (3 hits and two walks, plus a wild pitch) and approaching 100 pitches manager Mark Kotsay decided to pull the plug on Boyle’s day, with two runners still on base.
-Joe Boyle: 4 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 85 pitches
Not a bad first game back, though he probably felt a bit less pressure to be perfect with a huge lead for most of his outing. He just lost gas in that tough fifth inning of work but now will have a goal next time out: pitch deep enough to qualify for the win.
Bullpen finishes it off
After Boyle came righty Austin Adams to put out the fire. He did it with a little flair too, getting a pair of strikeouts to end the New York threat. Lefty Scott Alexander came next and had a scoreless outing of his own, Michel Otañez allowed a couple hits but didn’t allow them to cross home plate, and TJ McFarland and Tyler Ferguson wrapped this up with scoreless innings of their own. In all it took five relievers to finish this co test off after Boyle’s short start but they did their job and kept the Mets from even thinking about getting back into this one. Would be nice to get an extended start tomorrow to give these guys a break.
All in all a quality win for the Athletics. They’ve now won more games than they did all of last season and there’s still a whole extra plus and a half to go. Langeliers had a 4-hit day (including his 22nd blast), Boyle looked solid enough for his first game back, and the bullpen picked him up with five scoreless innings. You’ll win a lot of games with that sort of formula.
Oakland will now get a chance to earn the series win tomorrow evening in the middle game of the series. Right-hander Joey Estes is set to take the hill for what will be his 16th start of the year. New York will counter with the left-handed David Peterson. Should be a good one!
Source link : https://www.athleticsnation.com/2024/8/13/24219884/as-topple-mets-win-9-4
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Publish date : 2024-08-14 06:33:01
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