OAKLAND, Calif. _ Sunday brought to an end the first three weeks of what will be a 26-week season for the A's.
It didn't end well, 11-1 losses not tending to endear themselves to a team that had been riding a five-game winning streak and that wants to be in a pennant race. Even as Seattle starter Yovani Gallardo and his 6.46 ERA were slicing and dicing the Oakland lineup, the A's had some positives to take away from this foray into the wilds of the 2017 season.
For one, they are in second place, three games behind American League West-leading Houston. For another, Oakland has a winning record. And while 10-9 isn't a jaw-dropper, for a team that lost more than 90 games each of the last two seasons, it seems that the first tentative steps toward rebuilding the A's have been taken.
For yet still another, Oakland has done these deeds with ace starter Sonny Gray on the disabled list for the entire time and No. 2 starter Kendall Graveman disabled for almost half of the 21 days. Graveman is due to come back to the A's as early as this week's series against the Angels in Anaheim, and Gray should be back in the rotation by the time the trip makes its third stop, facing the Twins in Minnesota.
A's starter Andrew Triggs came into the game with 172/3 innings pitched over three starts in which he had not allowed an earned run. That was good enough for a 3-0 record, one of just five AL pitchers with three wins.
The streak of innings without an earned run ended in the first on Robinson Cano's one-out RBI single, and the streak of wins without a loss effectively ended in the third when Seattle shortstop Taylor Motter delivered his fifth homer. It had a bit of majesty to it, a two-out grand slam that slammed a door on the A's winning streak.
Triggs' ERA exploded at that point, although perhaps not as badly as it might for a pitcher with less lofty numbers coming in. His 0.00 cushion telescoped out to 2.42 as he fell to 3-1.
Reliever Raul Alcantara, who allowed eight earned runs in two innings in his only start, was the victim as the Mariners tried to take out three losses' worth of frustration in one game. Nelson Cruz crushed a three-run homer in the seventh to get Seattle's run count up to nine. The Mariners added two more runs off Alcantara in the ninth.
Gallardo came into Sunday winless and without a quality start in any of his three games. Sunday was nothing but quality, however, as on a warm day he held Oakland bats in a deep chill. There were only three A's base runners in the first six innings, two singles and a walk.
The A's finally ran him out of the game in the seventh inning, although with the club facing a nine-run deficit at the time, the overall scope of the game didn't change. Ryon Healy doubled, took third on a single from Trevor Plouffe and Gallardo took his spot on the Seattle bench. Mariner reliever Tony Zych got out of the inning, but not before allowing Matt Joyce to avoid a shutout, Joyce delivering a sacrifice fly.
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