Rare fielding lapses end A's home win streak

The A’s pride themselves on elite defense, especially in an infield that features a couple of two-time Gold Glove Award winners, so it was bizarre to see a shaky display on the field on Saturday.

Several defensive miscues sunk the A’s in an early hole that was too much to overcome in a 4-3 loss to the Angels at the Coliseum. The loss featured three errors by Oakland infielders and snapped the club's nine-game home winning streak.

• Box score

Matt Chapman was responsible for a couple of the defensive mistakes, making what transpired even more strange. The two-time reigning American League Platinum Glove Award winner was involved in two plays that led to early runs for Los Angeles. The first came in the first inning, when Chapman charged in from third on a chopper by Mike Trout and fired a low throw to home that Austin Allen was unable to corral, allowing David Fletcher to score the first run of the game. The play was scored a fielder’s choice, though Chapman was clearly frustrated by his throw.

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“Looking back at that play, I still would have gone home with it, but I probably would have set my feet to make a better throw,” Chapman said. “My momentum was taking me towards the line and Fletcher was running down the line, so it was a tight window. I tried to throw it off balance and get it to [Allen] quickly.

“I gave Austin a pretty tough throw to handle. It’s a tough play, but a play that looking back on it, I’d like to save a run there for Bass.”

Though A’s starter Chris Bassitt managed to limit the damage to one run in the first, Chapman slipped up on defense again in the second, misplaying a short grounder by Fletcher that allowed a run to score and opened the door to an eventual three-run inning for the Angels. With a runner on first and one out at the time of the error, Chapman’s strong arm had the potential to turn an inning-ending double play had he come up with the ball cleanly.

Chapman tried to make amends for his mistakes with a solo shot off Griffin Canning that brought the A’s within two in the bottom of the fourth. But after Matt Olson’s fifth-inning RBI double cut the deficit to a run, the A’s offense was held scoreless over the game’s final four innings.

“It wasn’t our best day defensively,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re probably one of the better defensive teams in the league. It made Bassitt work a little harder, but I thought he pitched pretty well. Our guys came back and we had a chance.”

While there was disappointment in the immediate aftermath of the poor defensive showing, the A’s aren’t too concerned about that aspect of their game in the big picture. Oakland entered the day on a four-game errorless streak and having committed only 10 errors through its first 27 games, the fourth fewest in the Majors. Chapman and Melvin both chalked Saturday’s loss up to a bad day at the office.

“Defense is something that we definitely take pride in and consider [our] strong suit to win ballgames,” Chapman said. “Anytime you give a team extra outs, it’s going to be tough to win. We’ve been in a long stretch here and games like that happen. There were a few plays today that I feel like I should make. It’s just one of those days and you have to flush it.”

The silver lining on Saturday came in Bassitt's resilience after the early struggles. With the errors causing his pitch count to balloon up to 52 through his first two frames, Bassitt found a way to last much longer than even he expected and preserve an A’s bullpen that was down a few arms after a heavy workload the past few nights.

Bassitt kept the Angels off the board after the second and pitched into the sixth, limiting them to four runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks. He struck out six batters over 5 2/3 innings.

“I thought it was going to be a pretty quick day for me, but I got some quick outs,” Bassitt said. “I knew [the Angels] were aggressive coming in, especially early in counts. The way the game was being played, I knew I had to just grind it out.”

This three-game series, which ends on Sunday, is the final showdown between the two clubs in the regular season. Nobody is more thrilled about that development than Bassitt, who has now faced Los Angeles three times in his first six starts. Though the Angels' record is well below .500 (9-19), Bassitt considers them to have one of the most dangerous lineups in baseball.

“I feel like I face the Angels every dang start it seems like, and I’m sick and tired of facing La Stella, Fletcher and those guys,” Bassitt said. “I’m done with the Angels this year, which is a blessing. I don’t want to face those guys anymore. Today was just more, this is the last time facing them, so throw everything at them and hope for the best.”