Oakland: Upon joining the team this summer, Alex Wood, who has the most experience of any pitcher on the A’s roster, believed it was essential to set an example for the others. Considering the goal, his A’s career has not started off the way he had hoped. Among the 127 Major League pitchers with at least 25 innings this season, Wood had the second-highest WHIP (2.20), only behind Houston’s Hunter Brown (2.20), through seven starts. He also had a 6.32 ERA and had only once gone into the sixth inning. The A’s yearned for a deep outing after a day when the bullpen had to cover eight innings because Joe Boyle had to leave the game early. With three strikeouts in six scoreless innings against the defending World Series winners, Wood rose to the occasion and gave his greatest performance to date in green and gold. Wood’s impressive performance set the stage for the A’s formula, which has been so successful for them this season: get a quality start from their starter, score just enough runs in the first inning, and then turn it over to a bullpen that lights out. There was a hitch this time, though. Oakland lost 4-2 to the Rangers on Monday night at the Coliseum after Lucas Erceg let up Corey Seager’s game-winning three-run home run in the eighth, spoiling the game’s outcome. Erceg led up the eighth inning by walking pinch hitter Josh Smith. Before tonight, Erceg had only allowed two hits and three walks in his previous nine appearances. The right-hander allowed two singles and walked two hitters in an unusual session of work, with Seager’s deep ball on a 3-2 changeup with two outs being the most destructive hit. The frame was put in motion by that free pass. Mason Miller, the flamethrowing closer, was warm in the bullpen at the same moment. A’s manager, Mark Kotsay, stated, “They made some moves by pinch-hitting against [Erceg].”. “The reason Seager earned [$325 million] is because of his 3-2 changeup during at-bats. Erceg is experiencing a minor setback. I’ve only ever had faith in him. This season, he’s had nothing but success in that circumstance. Given that it was the A’s first defeat of the season when leading after seven innings, Erceg’s missed save will be more significant. But the offence was equally to blame for its failure to turn a profit. The A’s left seven runners on base and went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position despite having seven hits. Esteury Ruiz in the fifth and Darell Hernaiz in the second scored their two runs on sacrifice flies. “We had an opportunity to expand,” Kotsay remarked. “To put them away, you have to add on against strong teams. Lately, we’ve been able to expand. However, it cost us tonight because we were unable to acquire the assistance we required in a timely manner. The bright spot on a night when the A’s missed an opportunity to get closer to Texas, who went into first place while Oakland is now three games behind, was that Wood finally looked like the player he usually is. With 54 of 78 pitches going for strikes and lots of poor contact, he worked quickly by pounding the zone; the average exit velocity of the 17 balls in play against him was only 89.7 mph. Strikes are the biggest thing for me, according to Wood. “I can throw strikes… It was a significant event for me today. entering, obtaining the first strike, and attacking the men. That usually results in some of those quick outs, like we had tonight. Wood mentioned how frustrated his prior performance against Pittsburgh last week was because he couldn’t consistently attack the zone. He was pulled after four innings in the Pirates game, having only thrown 53 of the 93 pitches he faced for strikes. What, therefore, changed on Monday? Wood claimed to have found a mechanical issue with his hand placement, which he addressed before his April 25 start at Yankee Stadium. He pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball thanks to this patch. He fixed the problem for Monday’s start after it reappeared at the start of last week. “I noticed that my hands tended to be closer to or in front of my body’s midline,” Wood remarked. I had to make sure my hands were behind my midline before entering New York. They had returned to where they had been on their previous start. I kept that in the back of my mind the entire time we were out today. It greatly aided both my general command and changeup. We’re hoping to be able to maintain it and keep expanding the zone.
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