Fiers posts encouraging start in A's loss to Jays

TORONTO -- The season has been a tale of two Mike Fiers for the Athletics, and despite being walked off by the Blue Jays in the ninth for a 4-2 loss on Friday at Rogers Centre, Oakland can be encouraged by what it saw from its starter.

Fiers finished a season-high seven innings against a Toronto lineup that saw Vladimir Guerrero Jr. make his highly anticipated Major League debut, and the right-hander held the Blue Jays to just two runs -- including a leadoff homer to former A’s infielder Eric Sogard -- on six hits while adding five strikeouts.

“He was a lot better today,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “He gave up the home run right away, and the only other run was kind of a broken-bat single to center. He located better, looked like he pitched with a lot more confidence even after getting off to a rough start with the home run, and he was economical with his pitches, got us deep in the game.”

Before facing the Blue Jays to open the three-game series, Fiers had allowed six runs in each of his last three starts -- his previous outing was also against Toronto -- for a total of 18 runs over 10 innings. Over that span, opponents went 23-for-52 against him, good for a .442 average. In the two starts he made on the road this season before taking the mound at Rogers Centre, the 33-year-old Florida native had given up 12 earned runs over 6 2/3 innings.

“It’s tough when you have a stretch like that where you’re not doing anything right,” Fiers said. “You’re not going deep into games, you’re wearing out the bullpen, you’re not the pitcher that everyone’s kind of looking for you to be.

“I pride myself on definitely going deep into games and helping this team, and I haven’t been doing that the last couple starts. So to do this, hopefully this starts a run for me where I can be a reliable guy for this team every fifth day.”

Despite an impressive outing from Fiers, the A’s couldn’t get anything going at the plate early on, as Marcus Stroman twirled a gem for the home team, finishing seven innings and allowing just one hit -- a fourth-inning single to Marcus Semien -- while walking two and striking out seven.

“He’s got a good slider,” Melvin said of Stroman. “When he’s pitching well, that’s his pitch. He’s just in enough to get us off that, just enough fastballs on the outside corner to extend off the slider, and when he needed to throw a strikeout with the slider, he did it as well.”

According to Statcast, 41 of Stroman’s 97 pitches were sliders, and 11 of those were swinging strikes. Even before his one-hit effort against Oakland on Friday, Toronto’s Opening Day starter had allowed just six earned runs over his 30 2/3 innings this season, and his 1.76 ERA was already his best through his first five starts of a season. Stroman lowered that ERA to 1.43.

Almost as soon as Stroman exited the game, Oakland’s offense found its form. The second batter to face reliever Joe Biagini in the eighth, Ramón Laureano, singled before Robbie Grossman came in to bat for Josh Phegley.

Grossman tied the game with a pinch-hit two-run home run, the first pinch-hit homer of his career.

“We hadn’t done much of anything,” Melvin said. “It was nice to get Stroman out of the game and get somebody else in there, not that it gets any easier, but when a guy’s pitching that good and you get a guy on, and he makes a good swing, [it’s good].

“He’s come off the bench before and he knows how to do that. That was good to see, and I think for him ... to get a big hit like that after struggling a little bit should do something for his confidence, too.”

After Chad Pinder robbed Guerrero of potential extra bases in the fourth inning with a leaping grab at the left-field wall, he nearly gave the A’s the lead in the ninth with a laser off the top of the wall in left, missing his fourth homer by mere inches. The A’s couldn’t capitalize on his double.

“Talk about a game of inches,” Melvin said. “That ball he hits, if it’s another two inches, [closer Blake] Treinen’s in the game and we’re ahead. Unfortunately, he had a little too much topspin on it.”

Guerrero went 1-for-4 against Oakland in his debut, with a double to open the bottom of the ninth that set up Brandon Drury’s walk-off home run against Yusmeiro Petit.

“I’m sure [the crowd] was excited, especially a guy like that -- Hall of Famer’s son and what he’s done in the Minor Leagues,” Fiers said. “But for me, it was another guy -- I had to attack him just like everybody else. I’m sure it was exciting for him and for everybody here in Toronto and for their team. … It’s a cool experience, I guess, for Toronto.”