OAKLAND, Calif._The Oakland A's may not have been able to match their Nashville Triple-A farm team for pitching heroics Tuesday night, but they came awfully close.
Four Oakland pitchers, led by starter Zach Neal, combined to limit the Baltimore Orioles to just three hits as the A's eked out a 2-1 victory before 13,573 at the Coliseum. In short, it was one of the best pitching nights of the year as Neal and relievers Liam Hendriks, John Axford and Ryan Madson faced just four batters over the minimum.
In the organizational report, however, it'll wind up second fiddle. Jharel Cotton, one of three pitching prospects the A's acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill, came within an out of throwing just the fourth perfect game in the 114-year history of the Pacific Coast League for the Sounds.
Cotton, a 24-year-old right-hander, retired the first 26 Round Rock batters he faced before surrendering a triple to the Express' Doug Bernier. He then struck out the next hitter to settle for a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts as the Sounds won 3-0.
But manager Bob Melvin certainly will take what he got, considering the dire straits of the A's starting staff. Hill is gone via trade, Sonny Gray and Jesse Hahn are on the disabled list, and the manager is being forced to improvise with pitchers like Neal, who has been a spot starter and reliever with Nashville much of the season before being called up to Oakland on July 21 and used primarily out of the bullpen.
In his second A's start, however, Neal (2-1) was superb, pitching into the sixth and allowing just one run on two hits. Hendriks, Axford and Madson then made it stand up with 32/3 innings of shutout relief. Madson pitched the ninth for his 24th save.
Neal was perfect through the first three innings, and the A's got him a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. With one out, Marcus Semien and Jake Smolinski stroked back-to-back singles and Danny Valencia sliced a double down the right field line to score Semien. Khris Davis followed with a sacrifice fly to right, his 70th RBI of the season.
Adam Jones got Baltimore back within a run in the top of the fourth when he led off with the first hit against Neal, a long home run, his 22nd, into the left field seats. But the A's righthander proceeded to retire the next six in a row heading into the sixth.
Jonathan Schoop led off the top of the sixth with a double in the left-center gap, and J.J. Hardy's fly ball to right advanced him to third. A's manager Bob Melvin decided that Neal, who has spent most of the season in the bullpen, had reached his pitch limit at 72 and lifted him in favor of Liam Hendriks to face the top of the Orioles' order.
Hendriks came up big, getting Jones to pop up and retiring Hyun Soo Kim on a comebacker to keep the potential tying run at third base. He then pitched a perfect seventh inning, striking out both Manny Machado and Mark Trumbo. Axford also struck out a pair, Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy, in a scoreless eighth.
Gray was a very relieved man in the A's clubhouse before the game. He got the MRI news on his strained right forearm late Monday night and was ecstatic to learn the test revealed no structural damage. The injury that landed him on the disabled list Sunday is merely inflammation and fluid buildup that should heal on its own with down time.
"Yeah, there's definitely relief after not knowing for a couple of days what the issue was," Gray said. "But once you get the news, you can start to put a plan in motion and hopefully it won't be a significant thing." It remains to be seen when Gray will pitch again. Melvin said the club won't rush his return. The pitcher is merely receiving treatment now, and there isn't even a timetable yet to begin strengthening exercises toward the goal of simply playing catch.
"We want him to be healthy," Melvin said. "But there is desire on his end to finish strong."
Infielder Eric Sogard's season is very likely done, even though he has resumed baseball activities. Sogard had a debridement of the patellar tendon in his left knee performed on April 21 but the rehabilitation has taken longer than what was initially expected.
"It was a simple surgery but the rehab was kind of lengthy," said Melvin. "There weren't any setbacks, but the surgery itself would suggest a little bit longer time to heal and get ready. He's taking some ground balls, some dry swings. He's just not able to run close to 100 percent ... I doubt that he'll be able to play here before the end of the season."
Sean Doolittle threw a 31-pitch bullpen session Tuesday and how he recovers from that will determine the next course of action, whether that be another bullpen or throwing to live hitters.
