WEST SACRAMENTO -- When Brent Rooker connected on a 3-2 fastball from Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering in the 10th inning with the bases loaded on Saturday night, he drove it deep enough to center field that a perfect throw from Brandon Marsh would be required to deny the Athletics a victory.
For any other team in normal circumstances, the game likely ends on that play. For the A’s, who were going on nearly two weeks since their last win, what transpired next is yet another example of how it feels like nothing has been going their way as of late.
Circling under Rooker’s fly ball with time to get a running start, Marsh made the catch and quickly fired a one-hopper to catcher J.T. Realmuto, who executed an equally superb swipe tag on Logan Davidson, who entered the game just minutes before as a pinch-runner at third for A’s No. 1 prospect Nick Kurtz after he left the game with a left hip flexor injury.
Instead of winning it on a Rooker sacrifice fly, the game remained tied with two outs. From there, Tyler Soderstrom was intentionally walked to load the bases again, this time for Shea Langeliers, who flied out to left to end the inning before the Phillies put up three runs in the 11th to sink the A’s to their 11th consecutive loss in a 9-6 defeat at Sutter Health Park.
“You just have to move forward,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “It was a game that went back and forth for nine innings, and we had our opportunities. I don’t know how many men we left on base, but there were quite a few.”
The A’s indeed had several missed opportunities that could have positioned them even better to end this dreadful stretch. But as has been the case in their previous few losses, the late innings have been their downfall.
On Saturday, the A’s took a 5-4 lead into the seventh. Michel Otañez, who took over for starter Jeffrey Springs, began the frame by walking pinch-hitter Marsh and hitting pinch-hitter Max Kepler, the No. 8 and No. 9 spots in Philadelphia’s order. Two batters later, Bryce Harper tied the game with an RBI single.
After regaining the lead in the eighth on Rooker’s 12th homer of the year, a solo shot to left-center, All-Star closer Mason Miller, carrying a 14.29 ERA with two losses and a blown save over his previous five outings, was summoned in the ninth to finish it off. Following a strikeout of Marsh for the first out, Miller fired a first-pitch 101.4 mph fastball to Kepler that he managed to drive out to right field for a game-tying solo blast.
“I went and looked at the Kepler pitch,” Kotsay said. “It’s supposed to be down and away. … The ball was middle in, and Kepler just dropped his bat head right on a pitch. When it’s going good, you get away with that pitch. You get a foul ball or a guy pops it up. When it’s not going good, the guy hits it out of the ballpark.”
Offensively, the A’s tallied 14 hits and drew nine walks against the Phillies, which can be taken as a positive. Still, situational hitting also continues to be lacking. Entering the day, the A’s were 12-for-85 (.141) with runners in scoring position. On Saturday, they went 5-for-20 in such situations and stranded a total of 16 runners on base.
“That’s kind of the theme that we’ve been in over the last several days,” Kotsay said. “We’re in one of those really challenging times that test character. You can either make excuses for it or you can stand up and accept the accountability. I think these guys are doing that. There’s not a lack of effort going on or a lack of desire or a lack of heart.”
It truly is a game of inches for the A’s right now, as Rooker said he felt Davidson probably would have scored on his broken-bat flyout in the 10th had he been able to muscle it up just a couple of extra feet.
“Tonight was tough,” Rooker said. “We’re doing our best every night to get a win. Tonight hurts. At the same time, we just have to turn the page and come back out tomorrow. … We’re going to win another game. It’s not going to last the rest of the season. … Things are going to turn at some point if we just keep doing what we’re doing.”