Savery being brought along slowly

PHOENIX -- Joe Savery's second Cactus League appearance wasn't the greatest for someone competing for a spot in the A's bullpen.

Savery, who along with fellow left-hander Fernando Abad has the best chance to snag the last bullpen opening, made his second appearance for the A's on Wednesday in Oakland's 7-2 loss to the Brewers at Maryvale Baseball Park, walking two and uncorking a wild pitch.

Although the first batter Savery faced reached on one of two errors in the inning, he later scored on the left-hander's wild pitch.

Savery has been brought along slowly this spring, making only one appearance (1 1/3 innings on Sunday) before Wednesday, because of his late arrival to the A's.

The reason for that, manager Bob Melvin said, was that the A's wanted Savery to get acclimated after being claimed off waivers from the Phillies on Feb. 17 -- three days after pitchers and catchers reported.

Melvin said Savery, who posted a 3.15 ERA in 18 appearances for Philadelphia last season, will throw again Friday and seemed confident Savery will impress the more appearances he gets.

Abad, meanwhile, has been making the most of his chances. He's thrown three scoreless appearances, allowing one hit and striking out four.

"With Savery coming a little bit later, we weren't comfortable getting him into games as early was we did Abad," Melvin said. "But Abad's been terrific. Every one of his outings seem to be the same: limited pitches, a lot of strikes, plus velocity, good breaking ball."

The rest of the bullpen appears set with closer Jim Johnson, setup men Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook, Luke Gregerson and Dan Otero, and long reliever Jesse Chavez.