The Athletics fell short for the first time this week, suffering a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Following three straight days in which the A\u2019s scored more than five runs, Diamondbacks pitchers shut the A\u2019s offense down today, limiting a lineup full of starters to only one run.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs pitched much better this afternoon in his second spring tuneup appearance. He did not allow a run over two and one-third innings. However, he gave up three hits and one walk. Springs made things difficult for himself as two back-to-back jams raised his pitch count, likely the reason why he was removed from the game midway through rather than after the third inning.<\/p>\n
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Reliever Tyler Ferguson replaced Springs and induced a double play grounder to end that inning. He pitched the next inning as well, although that did not go as well because Diamondbacks infielder Jacob Amaya hit a two-run home run to right field. Amaya drove in all three of Arizona\u2019s runs, his third RBI a sacrifice fly off A\u2019s reliever Justin Sterner in the sixth inning. Sterner and Ferguson have not had the best starts to spring. On the other hand, left-handed relievers Hogan Harris and Matt Krook have been flawless so far, with a spot in the bullpen potentially available for Krook should he continue having success this spring.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it seemed from the game\u2019s beginning that it was not going to be a good day for the A\u2019s offense. Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Pfaadt, making his first spring start, got through the first inning on just four pitches. The A\u2019s did not threaten until the third inning when they got two runners on base to knock Pfaadt out of the game. Unfortunately, A\u2019s first baseman Nick Kurtz grounded into a double play against the Diamondbacks reliever to end that scoring threat.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s lone run came the next inning, courtesy of Jacob Wilson\u2019s sacrifice fly, which was set up by back-to-back singles from Tyler Soderstrom and Brent Rooker.<\/p>\n
Later in the game, the A\u2019s had a couple of chances to put more runs on the scoreboard. They wasted Kurtz\u2019s leadoff double in the sixth inning and then Colby Thomas grounded out with two of his teammates on base to end the eighth inning.<\/p>\n
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The A\u2019s will look to bounce back tomorrow at the Los Angeles Angels. Right-hander Luis Morales will make his third appearance and second start. The Angels will counter with their latest reclamation project, right-hander Alek Manoah, who is off to a strong start this spring. A\u2019s fans will also get their second look at last year\u2019s first-round pick, left-hander Jamie Arnold. If they all pan out and stay healthy, Morales, Arnold and fellow pitching prospect Gage Jump could be the top-of-the-rotation arms that can get the A\u2019s back to consistent playoff contention.<\/p>\n
Notes<\/p>\n
Third baseman Max Muncy made his second throwing error this spring. His defensive consistency remains a question as he competes for the starting job.<\/p>\n
Leo De Vries got another hit today and is now batting .375 in the Cactus League! Impressive for a 19-year-old.<\/p>\n
Colby Thomas continued his slow, injury-hampered start to the spring. There are still multiple weeks until the regular season starts, but at this point he seems likely to start the season in Triple-A unless he starts playing and contributing more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics fell short for the first time this week, suffering a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[7900,146,22,4314,5,654,545,28330,38,4813,5009,1950,5626,3239,6616,56,706,12349,1532,4,459,4304,1949,5346,4915,544],"class_list":["post-607236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-alek-manoah","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-brandon-pfaadt","tag-brent-rooker","tag-colby-thomas","tag-diamondbacks","tag-hogan-harris","tag-jacob-amaya","tag-jacob-wilson","tag-jamie-arnold","tag-jeffrey-springs","tag-justin-sterner","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-luis-morales","tag-matt-krook","tag-max-muncy","tag-mlb","tag-nick-kurtz","tag-spring","tag-the-athletics","tag-third-inning","tag-tyler-ferguson","tag-tyler-soderstrom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116175161173371971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}