Los Angeles Dodgers Thump A's in 9-3 Win

Coming into this series, Wednesday's game was always going to be the most difficult of the bunch for the Athletics with the Los Angeles Dodgers sending Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound. The Japanese righty entered the game with a 1.80 ERA and had been largely dominant all season.

The A's were sending out Gunnar Hoglund, who was making just his third MLB start. After the Dodger ace held the A's scoreless in the top of the first, Hoglund gave up a leadoff home run to Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the inning. The same trend followed in the second, with the A's being shut down, and Hoglund allowing another solo shot--this time to Andy Pages.

But right at that point is where this game got interesting for a bit. In the top of the third, Luis Urías led off with a single, and with two outs, left fielder Tyler Soderstrom cranked a game-tying homer to center, his tenth of the season. Before that at-bat, Soderstrom had struck out in five of his six plate appearances in Los Angeles.

A's manager Mark Kotsay said after the game, "Last night was a tough night. He had four strikeouts, goes up the first at-bat [tonight], has another strikeout. He stays with his plan and gets a ball up in the zone, drives it out to center field. Hits another ball in the gap. That's showing a lot of maturity in his mindset--not allowing the failure to take a hold of him."

It was Hoglund's turn to start putting up zeroes, which he did in the third and fourth.

In the top of the fourth inning, Shea Langeliers led things off with a six-pitch walk, and with one down he came in to score on a double from Miguel Andujar. The hit landed the A's a 3-2 lead against one of the top pitchers in baseball on one of the best teams in baseball. This coming after Tuesday night's 11-1 win over the Dodgers.

The lead didn't last long, however, as 26-year-old rookie Hyeseong Kim launched the first home run of his career to tie things up at 3-3. Andy Pages would lead off the sixth with a single, but would be thrown out trying to go first-to-third on a single from Michael Conforto. It was yet another outfield assist from Tyler Soderstrom that saved the A's--for the time being.

At that point, Hoglund was lifted with one down and a runner on first. Hogan Harris got Enrique Hernández to fly out to fly out to right, but pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas (who pitched last night) doubled home Conforto to give Los Angeles a slim 4-3 lead.

Yamamoto was done after six, but the Dodger bullpen didn't give up much the rest of the way. The A's best opportunity came in the top of the eighth, when Soderstrom doubled with one away. He was pushed to third on a Brent Rooker ground out, giving Langeliers a chance with two outs. Righty Kirby Yates spotted a fastball at the bottom of the zone that got the A's catcher looking at strike three.

While that at-bat was big in the moment, it ended up not mattering much in the final result. The Dodgers proceeded to score five times in the bottom of the eighth on a two-RBI double from Mookie Betts and a three-run homer from Max Muncy (the other one).

The pitcher on the mound for that breakout was setup man Tyler Ferguson, who gave up three hits and walked a pair in his inning of work.

We also saw the season debut of Michel Otañez, who has been out all season with a right shoulder impingement. He came on in the sixth, with L.A. having just taken a one-run lead. There were runners at the corners and two away, and Mookie Betts was in the box. Just a nice and easy landing spot for the hard-throwing righty.

He got Betts to fly out to end that threat, and then worked a scoreless bottom of the seventh to keep the game close. Sometimes Otañez performs a bit of a high wire act, but he typically gets the job done. Now that he'd acclimated, he could certainly serve as one of the setup men to get to Mason Miller in the ninth.

For Ferguson, this is the second time he's been touched up a bit in the past week. The first came on May 6 against the Seattle Mariners, though that was his fourth day in a row pitching. He gave up three runs in his 2/3 of an inning. He also tossed 1/3 of an inning against the New York Yankees on Saturday, so since he was pitching every day he's had a little more time off.

Kotsay pointed to a lack of command for Wednesday's struggles, which is "unusual for him." He said Ferguson elevated some pitches, where he typically stays down in the zone.

The A's and Dodgers will compete for the series win on Thursday, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m. (PT). Osvaldo Bido is the scheduled starter for the A's, though with Roki Sasaki landing on the IL on Tuesday, their starter is currently TBD.