Following a season-opening sweep against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Athletics began their second series against the Atlanta Braves hoping to finally get in the win column this season. Alas, that will have to wait another day as the Braves shut out the A\u2019s 4-0, extending the visitors\u2019 losing streak to four games.<\/p>\n
Making his first start of the season, A\u2019s left-hander Jacob Lopez\u2019s command issues were apparent from the jump. In the top of the first, Braves starter Bryce Elder retired the first three A\u2019s batters in order. Then Lopez took the mound and immediately put his team in a hole. He walked three, gave up three hits and three runs. The Braves sent all nine batters to the plate in Lopez\u2019s 41-pitch first inning. Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson\u2019s RBI double and shortstop Mauricio Dub\u00f3n\u2019s two-run single were both bloops that found grass. So, in a sense, Atlanta got lucky, yet Lopez deserved to get punished for his command struggles that inning.<\/p>\n
Lopez endured three more innings without allowing any more runs. He only allowed one hard hit ball as four of Atlanta\u2019s five hits had exit velocities of 81 mph or lower. However, failing to record a strikeout while walking five sums up Lopez\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the A\u2019s offense continued its early-season slump. Braves\u2019 pitcher Bryce Elder, who had a 5.30 ERA last year and may not not have started this season in his team\u2019s rotation were it not for injuries to his teammates, pitched six scoreless innings, only allowing five hits while striking out five A\u2019s batters.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s had several chances to reduce the Braves\u2019 lead. In the third inning, first baseman Nick Kurtz lined out following right fielder Carlos Cortes\u2019 two-out double. The next inning, the A\u2019s had a rally going as Tyler Soderstrom and Brent Rooker hit back-to-back singles to bring the tying run up to the plate. Unfortunately, Elder got both Jacob Wilson and Lawrence Butler to fly out to center to escape the jam unscathed.<\/p>\n
The Athletics had more chances in the later innings. In the seventh inning, third baseman Max Muncy hit a double off Braves\u2019 left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer with one out, only for his teammates to leave him stranded on second base. In the top of the eighth inning, right-hander Robert Suarez got Rooker to ground into a double-play to stop another A\u2019s rally and keep his team\u2019s shutout going.<\/p>\n
While the A\u2019s offense continued its futility, the team\u2019s relievers kept the deficit the same, a welcome sight given that group\u2019s poor performance in Toronto this past weekend. Justin Sterner, Elvis Alvarado and Mark Leiter Jr. all pitched scoreless innings out of the bullpen before the Braves scored a fourth run against Michael Kelly Jr.in the bottom of the eighth.<\/p>\n
Throughout this game, the A\u2019s had several chances to score runs and mount a comeback, yet failed to record the big hit every time. They hit several hard-hit balls right to Braves\u2019 defenders, finishing the game 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Kurtz and Wilson, who finished first and second in American League Rookie of the Year voting last fall, both went 0-for-4, continuing their miserable performance through the season\u2019s first four games. Whether it is due to their place in the lineup or a harbinger of a sophomore slump, the A\u2019s need these two players to start contributing more given how much of an impact they have on this team\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n
The Athletics will try to get their offense rolling and snap this losing streak tomorrow in the second game of the series. Right-hander Aaron Civale will make his A\u2019s debut, while the Braves have left-hander Jose Suarez lined up to start. With the A\u2019s likely to face Braves ace pitcher Chris Sale in Wednesday\u2019s series finale, they face another possibility of a series sweep should they not win the middle game of this inter-league series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a season-opening sweep against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Athletics began their second series against the Atlanta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[38693,78901,191,46,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-653740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-as-game-recaps","9":"tag-athletics-scores-and-standings","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-atlanta-braves","12":"tag-atlantabraves","13":"tag-baseball","14":"tag-braves","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116321652914273330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653740","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=653740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}