Elephant Rumblings: Another tough series loss

MLB news roundup

Happy Monday, Athletics Nation!

Between Friday’s series opener win and taking a late lead in Sunday’s tiebreaker, I held out plenty of hope that the A’s would take their series against the Blue Jays over the weekend. Alas, it turned out to be another frustrating near miss for the green and gold, who lost Sunday’s game—and the series—in extra innings to drop a fifth straight series. As Martin Gallegos at MLB.com pointed out, the A’s have won just one series over the past month.

Hogan Harris put up another splendid start in Friday’s win. But on Saturday, Luis Medina failed to build on his previous successful start, laying an egg while Jays starter Kevin Gausman had a career day, throwing a complete game shutout against A’s hitting. The bats made some decent contact, but the balls in play just weren’t dropping and the A’s ten strikouts seemed to come at particularly inopportune times as Oakland suffered a lopsided defeat that forced Sunday’s tiebreaker.

The A’s got another solid start from Mitch Spence yesterday but failed to hold on to a 3-2 lead and eventually fell in the tenth. Thus continues a frustrating stretch for the A’s, marked by good pitching, a dearth of offense, and lots of close games that ultimately drop into the “L” column.

Another road trip begins today, and the A’s will look to pivot towards greater success this week against the Padres and Twins. Above all, we should simply hope the bats can bring more runs to the plate: the A’s haven’t scored more than three runs in nine innings since June 1st.

Have a fantastic week, AN.

A’s Coverage:

• Athletics drop series finale 6-4 to Toronto
• J. Diaz, J. Estes, And M. Andujar Oh My
• Soderstrom, Blue Jays pitcher collide in odd play during A’s game
• A’s Select Michel Otañez
• Before A’s move to Vegas, they’re negotiating how many games they can play elsewhere ($)
• A’s Fans Share Their Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder Memories
• The Walk-Off Homer That Ended in a Loss
• Former Athletics’ pitcher Chris Bassitt has the dirt on the Coliseum, and he’ll never forget it
• Chris Bassitt Takes Blue Jays up to Mount Davis

MLB News & Interest:

• Fans at the MLB London Series: ‘My flight cost $1,200 but we just had to be here’ ($)
• Are Aaron Judge and Juan Soto the best right-left hitting combo in baseball history? They are on pace for it ($)
• Dodgers fans invade Yankee Stadium in full force: ‘Never expected it here in New York’ ($)
• Cubs Have Reportedly “Privately Discussed” Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Trade
• Red Sox Notes: Devers, O’Neill, Yoshida
• Hank Foiles Passes Away
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Roster moves.

Erceg return may be near.

Bolte and Morales looking good in Lansing.

My lucky number.

A journeyman’s milestone.