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A's Game 37: It Was, How You Say, Abad

A play within a play. A dream within a dream. A nightmare within a nightmare.

Friday night's 7-6 loss to the White Sox in Oakland might offer the most concise synopsis of the A's 2015 season yet. It was a disaster in three acts:

Act 1: Jesse Hahn stumbles out of gate but limits damage.

Act 2: Hahn finds his groove as offense erupts.

Act 3: Defense and bullpen falter late. Baserunning gaffe ends game in defeat.

From a dramatic standpoint, the best writers couldn't have structured this any more tightly. Consider the beginning, middle, and end:

Innings 1-3: White Sox 2, A's 0

Innings 4-6: A's 6, White Sox 0

Innings 7-9: White Sox 5, A's 0

That's a classic formula, rarely seen executed so flawlessly in nature. The hero faces an obstacle, overcomes it, and then is destroyed by a larger obstacle.

Act 1

That Hahn escaped the first inning with only two runs against him is a minor miracle in itself. His first four batters of the night:

Double

Walk

Single

Walk, RBI

He allowed another single to plate the second run but managed to induce three grounders to escape without letting things get completely out of hand. Bad news? He needed 28 pitches to survive the ordeal.

And while the A's did nothing against White Sox rookie southpaw Carlos Rodon, neither did Hahn yield further. He retired the side in order in the second and essentially did the same in the third, with a leadoff hit batsman being immediately erased by a 4-6-3 double play.

Act 2

Josh Phegley opened the fourth with a homer to left. He'd hit a ball deep that way in the second, but this one had a little more oomph and managed to sneak into the crowd.

With one out, Rodon walked the bases loaded. Marcus Semien stepped to the plate and struck out on a steady diet of sliders.

The next batter, Josh Reddick, also saw sliders. He took the first for a strike before whacking the second deep to right for a three-run triple that gave the A's a 4-2 lead. Reddick's first extra-base hit against a lefty in 2015 came at a perfect time.

The A's tacked on single runs in the fifth and sixth to extend their lead to 6-2. Early obstacles overcome, our heroes had regained control of the situation, setting up the tragic conclusion.

Act 3

It started, as these things often do, innocently enough. Hahn retired Alexei Ramirez on two pitches. Geovany Soto then stepped up and bounced the third pitch he saw to the normally reliable Brett Lawrie at third base.

Alas, Lawrie couldn't decide whether to come in or stay back. Then when he stayed back, he tried to rush his throw to beat the excruciatingly slow Soto and forgot the ball.

Should be two out, nobody on, but the Sox now have a baserunner. They now have hope.

After a Carlos Sanchez single, Hahn was lifted. Given how the evening started, his final line looks damn fine: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.

The thing about removing the starter is that you have to replace him with a reliever. In the A's case, this is a huge problem, a fatal flaw.

Fernando Rodriguez retired the first man he faced, Adam Eaton, on a grounder to short that almost was a double play. But Eaton just beat the relay throw to first, extending the inning.

The A's should have only needed one out on the play, but because of the earlier error, the White Sox got another shot. And they made the most of it.

After an RBI single and a hit batsman, Rodriguez was removed. Fernando Abad came on to face the left-handed hitting Adam LaRoche.

Some of us may have been remembering the home run Abad surrendered to Chin-Soo Choo in Texas a short time ago. Others, such as Abad himself, were not throwing strikes. He fell behind 2-0 and then served up a meatball that LaRoche drove to deep right-center for a two-run double.

Lefties are hitting .375/.407/.875 against Abad this year. They have seven extra-base hits in 28 plate appearances. It's like that old joke:

Q: When is a LOOGY not a LOOGY? A: When he's Abad.

Evan Scribner entered next and promptly served up another two-run double. He then struck out Conor Gillaspie to end the frame, setting the stage for the cruel climax.

With two out in the ninth, Stephen Vogt pinch-hit for Eric Sogard and drew a walk against lefty Zach Duke. That brought up Coco Crisp, who doubled off the wall in left-center, which is great because you've got Semien and Reddick behind him.

Except that third-base coach Mike Gallego waved Vogt home. It was all kinds of ugly. And then it was over.

Gallego: "It was a bad call. Should've held him up earlier."

Vogt: "You just run until he makes you stop. By the time I saw the stop sign, I was already too far past third."

Audience: "Seriously, guys? That's how you lose the game?"

Seriously. That's how you lose the game.

#baseball #oakland a's #bad defense #bad bullpen #bad baserunning

If this doesn't make you laugh you are not human.

#Ruben Rivera #bad baserunning