If it came out, it was a grounder to the pitcher. The result was disastrous.
The Oakland Athletics lost 4-5 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 6 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. After taking a 3-1 lead, the Athletics lost the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning on two pinch-hit singles.
Starter J.P. Sears didn’t last five innings, but he pitched 4⅔ innings of one-run ball. The second pitcher, Lukas Erceg, came in with runners on second and third in the fifth inning and got a strikeout to end the inning.
The score was in hand, and the team had gotten out of the jam. But in the bottom of the sixth, the defense came up empty. Oakland’s nightmare sixth inning began when Ulshek was removed after giving up a single to Brian Hayes.
The third starter, Richard Lovelady, struck out Bae Ji-Hwan before giving up walks to Mark Matz and Austin Hedges. With the bases loaded, the Oakland bench opted for a pitching change, and it was Fujinami who came out of the jam. A pitcher with 7.0 walks per nine innings this year, he left the bases loaded.
The result was not unexpected. Fujinami walked Andrew McCutchen to load the bases. The next batter, Brian Reynolds, walked to tie the game at 3-3. He gave up a sacrifice fly to right field to pinch-hitter Zach Suwinski, who threw out McCutchen at third base to end the inning. But the score was already 3-4.
Fujinami retired Hayes in order in the bottom of the seventh. In 1⅔ innings, he gave up one hit, two walks, and struck out one. He didn’t allow an earned run of his own, but allowed two runners to reach base on back-to-back pushes with the bases loaded. He escaped with the loss, but he can’t escape the blame. Oakland tied the game 4-4 in the top of the eighth, but gave up the winning run in the bottom of the inning.메이저사이트
“Free passes and missed opportunities cost the A’s a chance at a rare road victory,” MLB.com wrote, citing the pitching staff’s lack of strikeouts as a contributing factor. Oakland’s pitchers walked 10 batters on the day.