Elephant Rumblings: Losing Streak Hits Five Games

MLB news roundup

Good morning A’s fans! No game today but that may be a good thing with the losing streak they’re on right now.

Both sides of the ball aren’t playing their best during this most recent skid. The pitching staff has given up 30 runs over the past five losses, averaging six runs allowed. Now, 14 of those runs came from just two pitchers, JP Sears (8) and Mitch Spence (6), but the rest of the staff hasn’t exactly been pitching their best either. The losing has also deprived us of the chance to see flamethrower Mason Miller more as we only got to see him mop up yesterday’s loss. There’ve been some positives of course but the pitching as a whole is struggling right now.

The offense hasn’t been doing much better over this losing streak. I’m the past five games the team had only scored 10 times, and half of those came in one game. The entire offense outside of Miguel Andujar is struggling right now. The only three players to have multi-hit games over this losing streak have been Andujar (twice), Brent Rooker yesterday, and rookie Armando Alvarez, who actually had a three-hit night.

Even with these struggles, the club doesn’t have many options as far as reinforcements go. The most promising player that might be able to help is top prospect Jacob Wilson, who only just came off the IL and is back in action at Triple-A. Same goes for third baseman Brett Harris, who has gone 6-for-12 since returning from his own injury. Seth Brown has been tearing the ball off the cover as well. And on the pitching side, the best thing the club can do is get healthy. Starters Paul Blackburn, Joe Boyle, Ross Stripling, and Alex Wood are all on the shelf and getting any of them back would be helpful to a struggling staff.

A’s Coverage:

• A’s drop series finale, swept by Angels
• Athletics Prospects: Jacob Wilson returns from injured list
• What happened? McCann, A’s derailed by wacky play at the plate
• A’s on pace for history

MLB News & Interest:

• Astros’ JP France to undergo shoulder surgery, done for season
• Ohtani’s home run sets Dodgers record with RBI in 10 straight games
• Dave Roberts wary of Ohtani in derby while rehabbing
• Latest on Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen
• Yankees bench slumping Gleyber Torres
• Brewers acquire Dallas Keuchel
• Wildest AB ever? Guardians prospect loses bat, then homers
• Face any pitch, any time: Inside MLB’s new Trajekt tech
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Triple-A manager Frank Riordan talks about some of the prospects:

A happy homecoming for Estes:

Took him a while but Alvarez has his first MLB hits: