For a hot minute tonight, it looked like the A’s would find a way to win a game in which they were outhit 11-3, but their defense and their bullpen ensured the loss. Sean Manaea struggled in two innings, but managed to right the ship and pitch a very respectable seven innings, allowing just the three runs. Unfortunately, thanks to everything else in the loss column today, three runs would have lost the game, and seven (congratulations to Nelson Cruz and his 300th home run) made it a certainty.
It’s hard to draw up a huge amount of ire for a game in which the A’s basically were two-hit for the entire evening, but still.