A's forced to pause quest for sweep vs. Tigers

DETROIT -- The A’s will need to wait until September for a chance to match a historic streak.

Oakland was well on its way to a 16th consecutive victory against the Tigers after taking a two-run lead in the seventh inning of Sunday’s game at Comerica Park, but rain put a hold on the potential four-game sweep. The game was delayed right after the bottom half of the seventh got underway, and after a delay of one hour, 41 minutes, it was officially suspended.

A game can normally be considered complete after five innings, but because the A’s took a 5-3 lead in the top of the seventh and the Tigers did not get a chance to bat in the bottom half, the game now must be resumed from the bottom of the seventh on Sept. 6 prior to the start of a three-game series between the A’s at Tigers at Oakland Coliseum.

The delay was a bit preemptive as rain did not actually begin to come down hard until about five minutes after the stoppage of play. A’s manager Bob Melvin felt the call came a little too early, but he understood the reasoning.

“They were told that once it started raining, it was going to rain really hard and be tough to get the tarp on the field,” Melvin said. “If they have orders to do that, I get it. I’m not a weatherman. It just wasn’t raining that hard.”

A 16th win in a row against the Tigers would match the A’s longest winning streak against one team since moving to Oakland in 1968. Oakland won 16 in a row against the Yankees from '89-91.

Mike Fiers entered Sunday feeling some pressure after the outings turned in by his fellow rotation mates over the past three games. No one wants to spoil a good stretch, and Fiers kept it going with another strong outing.

The right-hander made it four consecutive quality starts by A’s starters, allowing three runs on four hits and three walks, striking out three over his six innings. Fiers was only at 85 pitches, but with Stephen Piscotty’s two-out, two-run double putting the A’s back ahead by two in the seventh, Fiers was replaced by Liam Hendriks to begin the bottom half.

“We weren’t going to pitch him much more than 90 again today,” Melvin said of Fiers, whose pitch count continues to be monitored after throwing 131 in his no-hitter earlier this month. “He recovered well, because early on, it looked like he was having trouble.”

Having Tigers flashbacks
It took until the fourth game of the series for the A’s to encounter any adversity. It came in the first inning, when Fiers ran into some trouble.

After allowing a leadoff triple to Niko Goodrum, Fiers induced a sacrifice fly from Dawel Lugo that put the Tigers ahead just two batters into his start. It was the first lead Detroit held in the series, one which the Tigers added to later in the inning when a run scored on a passed ball.

Requiring 33 pitches to get through a stressful first as he battled to find the strike zone with two walks, Fiers appeared headed toward a short outing but bounced back with single-digit pitch counts in each of the following three innings.

A member of the Tigers in 2018 before getting traded to the A’s that August, Fiers admitted to getting inside of his own head a bit in the shaky opening frame, thinking back to his brief time with the club as he pitched in Detroit for the first time since the trade.

“I was trying to do too much. Thinking about playing for them last year, and having to face your former team isn’t always easy,” Fiers said. “Just knowing those guys and watching them last year, I think I was trying to be too perfect on some pitches and falling behind. That’s not my game.”

Melvin sensed frustration from Fiers, saying he appeared “out of sync” with his mechanics in the first.

“But when he came out, we had a lead,” Melvin said.

Let the good times roll
The A’s head to Cleveland for a three-game series feeling like they conquered some demons in Detroit. They entered the four-game series with just five wins in 20 road games and leave with three road wins in one series -- four if they can finish it off in September.

“We have to finish this one up; it’s not over,” said Piscotty, who extended his Majors-leading on-base streak to 19 games. “But it was a good series for us to bounce back after a couple of tough ones in Seattle and the tough road trip. Looking to carry this momentum over to Cleveland.”