A's defensive miscues rack up on windy, messy weekend

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Athletics second baseman Jeff McNeil swung his arm in clear frustration after bobbling a routine ground ball off the bat of the Giants’ Daniel Susac in the eighth inning of Sunday’s series finale at Sutter Health Park.

While McNeil still managed to recover in time to get Susac out at first, the weak grounder with the bases loaded and nobody out could have been a double play, or at least a forceout at home. Instead, San Francisco extended its lead to four runs with just one out in the eighth and two runners still in scoring position.

By the time the inning finally ended, the Giants had scored five more runs.

McNeil’s miscue exemplified his team’s defensive struggles in Sunday’s 10-1 loss, which saw the A’s (23-23) fall back to the .500 mark on the season for the first time since May 6. After committing two errors in Saturday’s 6-4 loss, the A’s were charged with three errors in the series finale as their fielding woes continued.

“It’s tough to win games when you give teams extra at-bats, when you give away outs,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “When you don’t execute outs, it puts stress on the pitching staff. That’s exactly what’s happened.”

The Giants blew open what had been a one-run contest with a massive eight-run frame marked by three misplays in the field, two of which went down as errors in the scorebook.

Two batters before McNeil’s bobble on Susac’s grounder, A’s center fielder Lawrence Butler mishandled a scorching bases-loaded single from Rafael Devers to hand the Giants a second run on the play. And the big inning began when third baseman Zack Gelof, moving to his left to cut off a Harrison Bader chopper, booted the ball and only recovered in time to make a late throw wide of first base.

It was Gelof’s second error of the game, and the other one was costly, too. With one out in the top of the fourth, Willy Adames reached base when Gelof’s throw across the diamond was up the first-base line. Adames came around to score on a double from Matt Chapman, but not before advancing to second on a balk called on A’s starter Jeffrey Springs.

While the balk technically went down as another example of the A’s falling short of the “clean baseball” they strive for, both Kotsay and Springs clearly disagreed with first-base umpire Jansen Visconti’s call.

“I think he missed it,” Springs simply said.

Regardless, Adames still might have scored from first base on Chapman’s 108.0 mph laser into the left-center gap. And even if he didn’t, the A’s would have needed more than the lone run they got all day, which came on a wind-aided Carlos Cortes popup that ended up dropping on the infield dirt for an RBI double.

Swirling gusts upwards of 30 mph certainly impacted the game -- Luis Arraez and Bader each hit homers for the Giants that were pushed out by the wind -- but the weather sure wasn’t the reason the A’s struggled to field ground balls.

“The conditions are tough, and that’s no excuse,” Kotsay said. “We’re familiar with it. We’ve been here, and I don’t really feel like it impacted the game.”

The club’s three errors sure did make an impact, though. In their past six games, the A’s are up to nine errors, the most in MLB in that span. Before that, they had just eight in their first 40 games, the fewest in the Majors.

For a club that prided itself on its defensive improvement, the recent poor stretch -- Kotsay called it a “lull” after Saturday’s loss -- is certainly a concern.

“We’ve got to get back to work,” Kotsay said. “For us as a team, we focused on improving our defense, and that’s been a big step in the right direction. This week wasn’t a step in the right direction, and you can see the results, right?”

Indeed, the impact of the A’s poor fielding was evident throughout the weekend. After Friday’s 5-2 win, a series victory over San Francisco was there for the taking with a victory either Saturday or Sunday, and the A’s had their opportunities in both contests.

But as evidenced by Sunday’s long, painful top of the eighth, they couldn’t take advantage.

“I think we kicked the ball around three times that inning,” Kotsay said. “That’s not good baseball. You don’t play good baseball, things get out of hand, and it did in the eighth.”