Hot A's Offense Falls Short In Game 2 vs. Blue Jays

Following their latest loss, the Athletics have now lost 16 of their last 16 games. Friday night, they dropped their second in a row to the Toronto Blue Jays (fourth overall) by a score of 11-7. The A's pitching staff has now allowed 10+ runs on back-to-back nights and has easily has the most games allowing ten or more runs this season.

The A's offense was hot against a familiar face, Chris Bassitt. The Jays' right-hander allowed five earned runs in as many innings. However, he still managed to punch out six A's hitters. Tyler Soderstrom and Shea Langeliers were both able to go deep off Bassitt, though both were solo shots.

Tyler Soderstrom's home run would give Jeffrey Springs and the A's an early lead in the second inning. However, the lead didn't last long as Springs would give up three runs in the bottom of the second inning thanks to a Myles Straw RBI single, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s RBI walk, and George Springer's sacrifice fly.

The A's offense would respond to the big Blue Jays' inning with a run of their own, as young star shortstop Jacob Wilson came through with an RBI single to bring the A's within a run of the Jays.

However, Toronto's offense had other plans in the bottom of the third. Former Athletic Ernie Clement would go deep for the second time in this series to extend their lead. Addison Barger would walk to set up an RBI double from Myles Straw, and Nathan Lukes would score him with an RBI single. All of that before Jeffrey Springs was able to record an out that inning.

The veteran southpaw would finish his day with two plus innings pitched, six hits allowed, six earned runs, and two strikeouts. The most killer stat would be that he issued six free passes to the Jays via walk. Handing out six free 90's to the Blue Jays set up a number of opportunities for clutch hitting, which led to a rough outing for Springs.

Shea Langeliers would respond to the rough inning with a home run of his own in the fourth inning off Bassitt.

When the fifth inning came around, the A's offense decided to cut into the deficit, as slugger Brent Rooker drove in a pair of runs on a double, closing the gap to 6-5. But, the A's would give the Jays these runs back and more in the bottom of the inning, taking a 9-5 lead.

A's reliever Mitch Spence was able to record two outs in the fifth, his third inning of work, but the A's intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to get to George Springer, and would bring in Justin Sterner to escape the jam. This led to back-to-back RBI singles from Springer and Alejandro Kirk.

The Jays tacked on two more the next inning with an Addison Barger home run, and then an RBI single from Bo Bichette would give Toronto an 11-5 lead heading into the late innings.

With their backs against the wall in the ninth inning, down by six, the A's would put together a couple of two-out hits. Miguel Andujar doubled, Denzel Clarke hit an RBI single to score him, and then Lawrence Butler followed those hits with an RBI double of his own.

The short-lived two-out rally came to a close with a Jacob Wilson flyout. There were lots of positives from the game, such as a much-needed good day at the plate from Denzel Clarke. He recorded a pair of hits, which was needed coming off many multi-strikeout games, including his four-strikeout game last night. This was Clarke's first multi-hit performance, and his second and third hits in the bigs.

Clarke also climbed the centerfield wall to rob Alejandro Kirk of a home run, and made a couple of other nice catches for the team.