Pirates return residence after 1-5 West Coast journey | Information, Sports activities, Jobs
Oakland Athletics pitcher Ross Stripling, bottom, works against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
From Mirror, wire reports
OAKLAND, Calif. — Ross Stripling threw six strong scoreless innings to earn his first win in nearly two years, and the Oakland Athletics hit two home runs to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 on Wednesday to complete their first series sweep of the season.
Abraham Toro and Tyler Nevin both went deep to help the A’s to their fourth straight victory in front of another sparse crowd of 4,679 at the Coliseum. Kyle McCann added two hits and an RBI.
Stripling (1-5), acquired from San Francisco in the offseason, had lost 10 consecutive decisions for the A’s and Giants before putting the clamps on the Pirates offense. The veteran right-hander allowed three hits, had two strikeouts and retired the final seven batters he faced to gain his first win since Oct. 1, 2022.
“Last year … I felt like I had no room for error,” Stripling said. “I felt like if I missed with anything, especially fastballs over the plate, it was damage every time. I feel like I’ve thrown the ball well this year. Some outings I haven’t been able to finish as strong as I would have liked, but today was a good one.”
Five Oakland relievers combined for three innings to complete the A’s fourth shutout of the season.
“We didn’t get big hits when we needed to,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We had opportunities (Wednesday) and we had opportunities (Tuesday night) and we didn’t get it done.”
Toro put the A’s ahead early when he belted a 3-1 sinker from Quinn Priester (0-2) to center field that bounced off the top of the fence and went over.
Nevin extended his career-best hitting streak to nine games with his fourth homer of the season in the third to make it 2-0.
“It all starts with our pitching,” Toro said. “I feel like if we can score two or three runs, our pitchers just keep us in the game. They’ve been the main reason why we’ve been winning lately.”
Oakland tacked on an unearned run in the fifth after Nevin reached on an infield single then scored on shortstop Onell Cruz’s throwing error that pulled Rowdy Tellez off the first base bag.
The Pirates missed a chance to score in the fourth inning when the A’s made a pair of errors after Cruz’s leadoff single. With a runner on third base, Oakland shortstop Darrell Hernaiz fielded Tellez’s grounder and threw home to get Cruz sliding across the plate.
“But right now we gotta keep going. The first game we didn’t get a lot of chances but the last two we had a chance to break through,” Shelton said. “We gotta get the ball to fall. We had chances to tie the game or get the lead and we didn’t do it.”
Pittsburgh missed another chance when A’s reliever Austin Adams got Bryan Reynolds to strike out swinging with the bases loaded in the seventh.
“When we had to make plays we made plays,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’re getting the pitching from both the starters and the bullpen. The offense is scoring enough runs but the pitching and defense is really the story now.”
Priester walked four and allowed five hits and three runs in six innings.
Health report
Pirates: C Yasmani Grandal (plantar fasciitis) made another start at DH for Triple-A Indianapolis and is expected to rejoin the big league club soon. … LHP Marco Gonzales (left forearm strain) has yet to resume throwing but the team remains optimistic for a possible quick return.
Up next
Pirates: LHP Martin Perez (1-1, 2.86 ERA) pitches the series opener against the Rockies on Friday. Perez has allowed seven runs and 12 hits over his last two starts, covering 9• innings.
Bleday keys A’s
JJ Bleday hit a go-ahead home run with one out in the fifth inning and a two-run drive in the seventh for his first career multi-homer game, leading the Athletics past the Pirates 5-2 on Tuesday night.
“Oh, it’s awesome, it’s a very special night,” Bleday said. “You always dream about those moments and then when it finally comes true it’s just like ‘that’s sweet.’ But now it’s try to find another goal, something else to do.”
Like what? “Maybe three home runs,” Bleday said with a grin.
Mitch Spence (3-1) struck out two over three scoreless innings in relief of starter Alex Wood. The left-hander is still winless over four starts in Oakland since joining the club as a free agent Feb. 2 — and he is yet to pitch more than 5ª innings in seven starts this season.
Nevin and Toro hit RBI singles in the second for the A’s after Shea Langeliers doubled to start the inning against Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller (2-3).
The A’s, who have won three straight and five of six, drew an announced crowd of 3,876 and finished the month of April with a 13-14 record.
“Guys are confident. I think down to each guy I think they were sick of going through what they went through last year,” Wood said of Oakland’s 112-loss 2023 season. “There’s a really strong will to go out there and play well and try and win every night, and you can see it in every guy out there.”
Lucas Erceg struck out the side in the eighth and Mason Miller finished the 2 hour, 22-minute game for his eighth save. The Oakland bullpen has now gone six straight games and eight of nine without surrendering a run — the longest stretch by A’s relievers since an eight-game scoreless streak from Aug. 20-29, 2020.
The pitchers are feeding off each other, and the A’s are on a roll playing solid, smart baseball — pitching, at the plate and on defense.
“It builds confidence, it gives you momentum,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “When you play good baseball, it’s contagious the same as hitting is contagious and guys start feeding off each other.”
Connor Joe homered in the first and singled in the fifth for the Pirates — matching his team’s total hits from a night earlier in a 5-1 defeat. Ke’Bryan Hayes added a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
