Only one team in baseball has had more success at scoring in the late innings this season. The A’s ran into that team Monday night.
A two-run eighth inning by the A’s to tie the game went all for naught after Jake Diekman surrendered a walk-off single to David Peralta in a 4-3 loss to the D-backs at Chase Field. The loss snapped Oakland’s four-game winning streak and extended Arizona’s streak to five straight wins.
Trailing by three entering the seventh inning, the A’s continued their offensive excellence in the late innings. With three more runs on Monday, the A’s have scored 51 runs in the seventh or later this season. But the D-backs entered the night with a Major League-leading 52 in that category, and the bases-loaded RBI single by Peralta in the ninth added to that total.
Save for Robbie Grossman’s solo shot in the seventh, the A’s offense struggled against D-backs starter Zac Gallen, going hitless until the sixth inning. Once Gallen departed after seven innings, A’s hitters broke through in the eighth against Arizona’s bullpen. A two-run rally was sparked by Vimael Machin’s leadoff single and Austin Allen’s double.
The eighth-inning rally to tie it gave the A’s the same feeling they had over the weekend in San Francisco, when they pulled off thrilling ninth-inning comeback victories in back-to-back games. But Monday night was a different story. Grossman led off the ninth with a single, which was quickly wiped out one batter later as Stephen Piscotty grounded into a double play.
“Their starter threw the ball really well. He gave us fits today. Any pitch in any count. He had us off balance,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Then we got into the bullpen, and we feel pretty good about the late innings. It wasn’t a surprise that we tied it, just couldn’t finish it off.”
Joakim Soria, after working a scoreless eighth, allowed a leadoff double by Nick Ahmed in the ninth. Melvin then went to a favorable matchup with the left-handed Diekman going up against multiple lefties in the D-backs’ lineup.
Diekman held opposing left-handed batters 0-for-10 before his bases-loaded encounter with Peralta, including Arizona outfielder Kole Calhoun, whom he struck out earlier in the ninth.
Peralta’s ground-ball single on an 0-2 slider that poked through drawn-in A’s infielders was just the second hit Diekman has allowed with runners on base this season. The first was Ketel Marte’s single with one out in the ninth.
“Those are our best matchups for the inning. We had the lefties coming up,” Melvin said. “[Diekman] strikes Calhoun out and gives up a ground-ball hit. Then gets ahead two strikes to Peralta and just didn’t get the slider far enough away. He threw the ball well. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out for you.”
Chris Bassitt did his best to keep the A’s in the game. The right-hander tossed five innings of one-run ball before running into trouble in a sloppy sixth, which included his poor throw that went by Matt Olson at first base on a pickoff attempt and led to Arizona’s third run of the game.
“I heard ‘step off’ and knew exactly what was going on. I looked over to Olson to see where he was at, and I saw him going back to first base,” Bassitt said. “I didn’t realize how far off the base he was. I hurried the throw and literally threw a cutter to Olson. He called a fastball and I threw a cutter, unfortunately.”
Bassitt was lifted with one out in the sixth, finishing with three runs allowed on five hits and three walks. He also struck out three batters.
Though the Bassitt is enjoying a strong start to his campaign -- now holding a 2.93 ERA through five starts -- he has been disappointed with his inability to get past the sixth inning on a consistent basis. He’s gone 5 2/3 innings or less in four of five outings.
“Stuff-wise, I feel confident. Just [ticked] about not going deep into games,” Bassitt said. “I feel way too good to be going only 5 1/3 or 5 2/3. Where I’m at right now and how I’m feeling, I feel I should be going seven or eight innings. It’s frustrating. I understand why I’m getting pulled. I need to do a better job of going deep into games.”