A's Fall Short to Toronto Blue Jays, Despite Hot Start

Bo Bichette would join the home run parade as he added a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the second inning. George Springer would also hit a solo home run against Hoglund to extend Toronto's lead.

George Springer struck again in the fifth inning, collecting his 25th career multi-homer game. Ernie Clement would score on a wild pitch the following inning to make it 8-5 Blue Jays. After the rough outing from Hoglund, the A's turned to Tyler Ferguson in the seventh inning, and he gave the team a clean inning of work.

After Braydon Fisher's rough couple of innings, former A's southpaw Easton Lucas came in and pitched 4.1 innings of relief to keep the Jays' lead secure. Former A's have been doing a number for the Jays this series.

Fast forward to the ninth inning, where the A's would face Toronto's closer Jeff Hoffman. Mark Kotsay elected to pinch-hit Drew Avans in the place of Denzel Clarke. Avans started the ninth with a strikeout, and would bring up Lawrence Butler with one away. Butler walked, and Jacob Wilson would follow with a fly out to bring the A's down to their final out.

With two away in the ninth, A's slugger Brent Rooker, who already had a multi-hit game, would send one over the left-centerfield fence for a two-run homer. Now only down by one, Soderstrom would come up and double to put the tying run in scoring position. Unfortunately, Ernie Clement would rob Shea Langeliers of a game-tying single up the middle, with a diving grab.

The A's now have the exact same record they had last year heading into June, at 23 wins and 36 losses. The A's pitching staff has been horrible recently and needs to find a way to limit long balls. Otherwise, the team could finish with a worse record than they did last season.

The A's offense is one of the best in baseball, but they have lost the past two games against Toronto, despite putting up seven runs of support in back-to-back games. That's certainly not sustainable. The A's went just 7-21 in the month of May, and that includes a 4-1 start to the month. On May 5, they were 20-16 after their win in the first game of the Seattle series.