Athletics Drop Season Series to Yankees

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

June 29, 2023

The Oakland Athletics (21–62) dropped their series against the New York Yankees (45–36) on Thursday. They lose the season series to the Yankees 5–1 while being out scored 50-16. The Yankees scored double digit runs in four of the six games. In continued futility, the Athletics went 3-for-16 with RISP. Over their last four series, the team is 16-for-103 (.155) with RISP. You stand absolutely no chance when you have the highest team ERA in baseball, and you also have the lowest batting average with RISP.

Lackluster Pitching

The pitching couldn’t miss a barrel this series. The bullpen, which had been performing so well over the last month, had a major regression in this series. Sam Long and Lucas Erceg, two of the more consistent pitchers for the Athletics, were touched up in their outings this series. Sam Long pitched in game two of the series. His line was 1 IP, 3 ER, 2 hits and 1 BB. Lucas Erceg pitched in both games one and three. His line was 1 2/3 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 1 BB and 3 K.

JP Sears, The Athletics most consistent starter all year, came into this season throwing incredibly well in June. Coming into his start in game two, he had made four starts in June throwing 23 2/3 innings, with a 3.42 ERA, 26 strikeouts to six walks with a .190 OBA. He is as close to an ace as the Athletics can claim to have. Sears, along with the entire team, struggled in the perfect game. He started his night by getting nine straight outs, but fell apart in the fourth inning. His final line on the night was 4 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, on 3 BB and 5 K. It was a slight stumble in what could possibly be an All-Star season.

Impressive Streak Snapped

This nightmarish season for Athletics fans hit new lows on Wednesday night when Yankees starter Domingo German threw baseball’s 24th perfect game. An accomplishment so rare, that even when it happens to your team, it is hard to turn off. Usually a moment the entire baseball world comes together to celebrate. This perfect game didn’t have the same feeling that the others have had. Many things off the field make it difficult to root for Domingo German, but what will tarnish this accomplishment most is the quality of the Athletics’ lineup. A perfect game is hard to get regardless of who you are playing, but the A’s glorified Triple-A lineup makes it a lot less impressive.

To make the night worse for Athletics fans, this perfect game ended a very impressive streak for the franchise. Coming into the night, the Athletics held the longest streak for not being no hit. One of the more prominent figures on A’s twitter is the account, A’s No-Hit Streak”. Dedicated to tracking the streak while it lasted, brought some joy to fans during this horrible season. The last time the Oakland Athletics had been no-hit was July 13, 1991 against the Baltimore Orioles, when four pitchers combined for the feat. It was an impressive 31 year, 339 day span which accounted for 5,010 games. When the streak hit 5,000, Last Dive Bar, created a shirt commemorating the event. Safe to say, this streak meant a lot to Athletics fans.

The next streak belongs to the Washington Nationals at 3,776 games, dating all the way back to the organizations time as the Montreal Expos. They have yet to be no hit in Washington DC, lasting all 2,892 games they have played there.

Is There a Bright Side?

There is a bright side to this perfect game. There were more eyes on what John Fisher is doing to this organization. He was under more heat from the national media. This means that more people nation wide will realize what is going on. Complicit with Major League Baseball, John Fisher has purposefully made this team as bad as possible in order to gas light baseball fans into thinking that the Athletics have no fans. Before this season, this was the general view of the team. But, with every step the organization and Rob Manfred have taken, the cracks have shown, and their real intentions have been shown.

On the field, Esteury Ruiz continues to provide a reason to watch the team. Bouncing between the lead off and nine hole in the order, he has been a weapon on the bases all season long. He reached his league leading 40th stolen base this season on Tuesday night. He is currently on pace for 80 stolen bases, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Rickey Henderson and Vince Coleman both did it in 1988. Ruiz also looks to become the first player in the 21st century to steal 80 stolen bases in one season. Jose Reyes got closest for the New York Mets in 2007 when he stole 78 bags.