Athletics Stat of the Day: July 2021
MLB.com is keeping track of a Stat of the Day for the A's this season, highlighting a unique, interesting or fun nugget from each game.
July 31: Angels 1, Athletics 0 -- A's post rare losing month
Entering Saturday with a chance to go .500 for the month of July, the A's lost to the Angels, sealing their first losing record (11-13) in a month since April 2019, when they went 11-15. That snaps a streak of 10 consecutive months with a winning record.
July 30: Athletics 2, Angels 0 -- All Bassitt does is win
Notching his American League-leading 11th win of the season, Chris Bassitt set a new career high for wins in a single season, surpassing his previous career-best total of 10, earned in the 2019 campaign.
July 29: Athletics 4, Angels 0 -- Montas a strikeout machine
Frankie Montas turned in his third 10-strikeout performance of July -- his fourth outing of at least 10 strikeouts on the season. His four starts of at least 10 strikeouts are now tied with Jose Rijo (1986) and Vida Blue (1974) four fourth-most in Oakland history. Blue has the all-time Oakland lead with 11 such performances, turned in during the 1971 season.
July 28: Athletics 10, Padres 4 -- Weak contact throughout
Sean Manaea pitched six scoreless innings and allowed only one hit and one walk. He also did not allow a hard-hit ball, defined by Statcast as an exit velocity of 95 mph or greater. It’s the first time Manaea hasn’t allowed a hard-hit ball in any start. (His no-hitter in 2018 ended on a 106.1 mph forceout off the bat of Hanley Ramirez.) Manaea’s previous low for hard-hit balls was one, in a seven-inning outing on April 15 at Seattle. Only one other MLB starter has pitched at least six innings in a game this season without allowing a hard-hit ball: Dylan Cease of the White Sox on May 4 at Cincinnati.
July 27: Padres 7, Athletics 4 -- Kaprielian hits a rocket
Rookie right-hander James Kaprielian collected his first Major League hit with a line-drive single to center field in the top of the third inning -- his first professional hit, in fact. He rocketed Chris Paddack’s 95.9 mph fastball at a 108.1 mph exit velocity. That’s the second-hardest-hit ball by an A’s pitcher since tracking began in 2015. Daniel Mengden had a 112.2 mph single on Sept. 15, 2017, at Philadelphia.
July 25: Mariners 4, Athletics 3 -- Olson crushes lefties
Perhaps the most impressive part of Matt Olson's All-Star 2021 campaign has been his consistent ability to hit left-handers. Crushing his 27th home run of the year off Marco Gonzales in Seattle, Olson has now hit 15 homers against left-handed pitchers this season, which leads the Majors in left-on-left situations.
July 24: Mariners 5, Athletics 4 -- No. 100 for Bassitt
Chris Bassitt reached a personal milestone in his start against the Mariners by appearing in the 100th game of his Major League career. The right-hander has combined for 87 starts and 13 relief outings across his seven seasons in the big leagues, six of which have come with the A's.
July 23: Mariners 4, Athletics 3 -- Diekman K makes A's history
In striking out J.P. Crawford to end the seventh inning of Friday night's game in Seattle, Jake Diekman etched himself into the A's record books. That strikeout marked the 90,000th strikeout in franchise history, dating back to 1901.
July 22: Athletics 4, Mariners 1 -- Manaea makes club history
Sean Manaea produced the type of dominance that hadn't been seen by an A's pitcher in over two decades. Recording a career-high 13 strikeouts with just one run allowed against the Mariners, Manaea became the first Athletics starter to record at least 13 strikeouts while allowing one run or fewer in a start since Todd Stottlemyre, who struck out 15 while allowing just one run over 10 innings against the Royals on June 16, 1995.
July 20: Athletics 6, Angels 0 -- Wilson's first big league hit
Jacob Wilson grinded away in the Minor Leagues for eight straight seasons and even spent the 2019 campaign playing in Korea before signing a Minor League deal with the A's this spring. After 802 Minor League games, the infielder was promoted to the Majors on July 8. Making his first big league start on Tuesday, Wilson finally picked up his first hit, singling off Angels starter José Suarez to lead off the bottom of the sixth.
July 19: Athletics 4, Angels 1
The A's are at their best when they're able to hit balls out of the ballpark on a consistent basis, with this night being a prime example. After out-homering the Angels, 2-0, the A's are 33-7 this season when hitting more homers than their opponents.
July 18: Indians 4, A's 2 -- Chapman's rare mistake
Matt Chapman misfired a throw to Matt Olson at first base after fielding a ground ball hit by Oscar Mercado to lead off the ninth inning of Sunday's game. Charged with his fourth error of the season, the rare defensive mishap snapped what was a career-high errorless streak of 52 games for the two-time Platinum Glove Award winner. The streak was also the seventh longest by a third baseman in Oakland history.
July 17: Indians 3, A's 2 -- Oakland's hit-by-pitches
Mark Canha and Aramis Garcia were both hit by a pitch on Saturday, bringing Oakland's team hit-by-pitch total to 52 on the season, which leads the American League.
July 16: A's 5, Indians 4 -- Walk-off capital of baseball
Over the last decade, the A's have given their home fans plenty of reasons to stick around late, and Friday night was another prime example as Jed Lowrie capped off a late comeback with a walk-off two-run homer. Since Bob Melvin took over as Oakland's manager on June 9, 2011, the A's have recorded 91 walk-off victories, the most in the Majors over that span.
July 11: Athletics 4, Rangers 1 -- Twice as nice
A day after Sean Murphy started a back-to-back home run string for the A's, the catcher followed Jed Lowrie to help the A's go back-to-back again on Sunday. An added bit of symmetry is that both pairs of home runs came in the second inning. The last time Oakland hit back-to-back homers on consecutive days was April 10-11, 2019, vs. the Orioles.
July 10: A's 8, Rangers 4 -- Brown sets record with blast
Seth Brown launched a no-doubt solo homer in the second inning that sailed an estimated 472 feet beyond the wall in right-center field. Not only was Brown's blast the longest by an Oakland player this season (by 10 feet, eclipsing a 462-foot shot from Chad Pinder), it also set the record for the longest home run at the Rangers' Globe Life Field, which opened its doors at the beginning of last season.
July 9: Rangers 3, A's 2 -- Another one-run contest
Tight games have been particularly prominent for the A's lately, as Friday marked their sixth one-run game out of their past seven overall. On the season, the Athletics' 28 one-run games are the most in the AL (the Mariners are second with 27, pending the outcome of Seattle's game with the Angels). Oakland is 14-14 in one-run contests, despite losing seven of nine.
July 8: A's 2, Astros 1 -- Lowrie on a tear
Jed Lowrie was 2-for-4 with an RBI in the A's 2-1 win over Houston on Thursday. Lowrie is batting .364 (16-for-44) with three home runs, seven RBIs and seven multihit games over his last 12 games.
July 7: Astros 4, A's 3 -- Andrus getting hot
Over his last 14 games, Elvis Andrus is batting .293 (17-for-58) with three doubles, two home runs and seven RBIs.
July 6: Astros 9, A's 6 -- Lowrie on a roll
Jed Lowrie went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI in the loss. Lowrie is batting .361 (13-for-36) with 3 home runs, 6 RBIs and 6 multi-hit games over his last 10 games.
July 4: Red Sox 1, A's 0 -- A rare 4th of July 'L'
The A's fell to the Red Sox on Sunday, 1-0, snapping an eight-game winning streak in Fourth of July games. This was their first loss on Independence Day since a 2-1 defeat against the Mariners in Seattle in 2011.
July 3: A's 7, Red Sox 6 -- The bats break out
The A's tied a season-high with 15 hits on Saturday. Their last 15-hit effort came June 22 on the road against the Rangers.
July 2: Red Sox 3, A's 2 -- Elvis (finally) left the building
Elvis Andrus blasted a game-tying solo shot in the ninth inning of Friday's game to snap a streak of 269 at-bats without a home run, which stood as the second-longest active stretch of at-bats without a homer in the Majors behind David Fletcher's stretch of 292 at-bats with the Angels. The 79-game homerless streak was also the longest of Andrus' career since a 119-game streak from May 22, 2014-April 13, 2015.
July 1: Rangers 8, A's 3 -- Chapman getting on base
Matt Chapman drew a pair of walks on Thursday to push his on-base streak to 18 games, which stands as the second longest of his career. Chapman's career-best mark is 30 games, which he set from July 11-Aug. 17, 2018.