ARLINGTON -- The Athletics didn’t officially announce Tuesday night’s spot starter, lefty Jacob Lopez, until the night before he faced the Rangers at Globe Life Field, and manager Mark Kotsay set modest expectations for the 27-year-old lefty before the game.
“We’re hoping for him to throw 85-90 pitches and get deep into the game tonight,” Kotsay said.
Lopez essentially held up the first end of that bargain, tossing 84 pitches -- but fell far short of achieving the second task, departing after only 2 2/3 innings in the Athletics’ 15-2 loss.
With J.T. Ginn out of the rotation and on the injured list with elbow inflammation, the A’s will require one or two more starts from someone else even in the best-case scenario. In addition to Lopez, the Athletics have three pitchers in the Triple-A Las Vegas starting rotation who are currently pitching well for the Aviators.
“I definitely didn’t help myself,” said Lopez, whose previous three appearances for the A’s this season came out of the bullpen. “But I am a starter -- that’s been my identity my whole career. So I’ve just got to continue to build off of this and show them that I can give length and not put the bullpen in a tough situation.”
Among those farmhands to whom the A’s could turn, if Lopez doesn’t get the next chance, are Joey Estes, who began the season in the rotation for the Athletics, and veteran Jason Alexander, who has started 104 of the 157 games he’s pitched as a pro.
Estes has posted a 5.17 ERA in three starts for Las Vegas, while Alexander has a 1.59 ERA in three starts. There’s also Gunnar Hoglund, their No. 14 prospect, who has a 2.43 ERA and 30 strikeouts over 29 2/3 innings in six starts.
As for Lopez, fastball command problems frustrated him throughout the outing. He threw only 40 percent of his 45 four-seamers for strikes.
“The lack of command really, really hurt him,” Kotsay said. “And anytime you go out and walk guys and give up free bases, it's going to be a long night.”
Kotsay, of course, wasn’t ready to pencil Lopez in (or out) of his next turn after Tuesday night’s loss -- which, long after Lopez left, got away from them so much they had to use catcher Jhonny Pereda to pitch the final inning.
“Anytime you have guys that go out and have performances, you'd like to be able to be patient,” Kotsay said. “But at this point, right now ... we're in the middle of 16 games [in 16 days], so it's tough when you when you have a taxed bullpen.”
Lopez got himself into -- and mostly out of -- trouble in his brief appearance, but his pitch count soared beyond his control quickly, like many of his errant fastballs. Perhaps a half-dozen of those were neck-high or higher, and several more sailed a few inches above the strike zone.
“I just felt with everything, I was spraying all over the place,” Lopez said. “High was a miss, but everything, out of the gate, I wasn’t able to settle in, and they took advantage of it.”
Lopez walked the first two hitters of the game, and then issued another walk to load the bases with two outs -- but he fooled Josh Jung with a well-placed slider down and away for an inning-ending strikeout.
After wriggling out of the first-inning jam, Lopez squeezed himself into another one in the second, walking leadoff batter Adolis García and hitting Jake Burger with the next pitch. Still, he got out of the inning with only one earned run thanks in large part to his defense, which managed to throw out García at home on a bunt single and retire Wyatt Langford on a nice catch by right fielder Lawrence Butler.
Lopez shouldered the loss, but the A’s bullpen gave up 12 earned runs after he left. Pereda was responsible for three of those, but after all, he is a catcher who did not surpass 90 mph with any of his 21 pitches.
“In order to save the bullpen, we’ve got to use a position player there in the eighth inning,” Kotsay said. “When you're down 10, that's never fun. It's pretty nerve-wracking, from a manager’s standpoint. Just thankful that Jhonny could just get three outs.”