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The Oakland Athletics started game six of the season positively, yet it didn’t last long thanks to the poor performance of starting pitcher Chris Bassitt.

Oakland took an early 1-0 lead off Clayton Kershaw in the bottom of the first inning. Jed Lowrie nearly homered and settled for a one out double. Ramon Laureano was back in the lineup after missing the last two games with a wrist injury and he doubled in the run. Unfortunately the A’s weren’t able to add-on as Matt Champan got ahead in the count before swinging at a pitch nowhere near the zone and not surprising ended up striking out.

Mitch Moreland struck out as well to end the inning. .

It didn’t take long for the Los Angeles Dodgers to tie the game up in the second. It all started with a leadoff single by Edwin Rios and a walk to Gavin Lux. Austin Barnes drove in a run with an RBI double. Fortunately Bassitt got Zach Mckinstry to line out to Elvis Andrus for the first out. The dangerous Mookie Betts got his chance and Moreland made a great play to get the out at home on hard hit ground ball.

Moreland wasn’t done yet though as he robbed Corey Seager of at least two RBI and was able to feed Bassitt at first to end the inning. After all that the game was still tied.

Unfortunately in the third Bassitt fell apart. He again gave up a leadoff single and Max Muncy then homered. After getting A.J. Pollock out, he hung a curveball to Rios who hit a solo home run. The A’s went from having a lead to trailing by three.

For third consecutive inning against Bassitt Los Angeles got their leadoff hitter on. Betts singled through the Oakland shift. He did get out of the inning unscathed and did so again in the fifth as Pollock singled. Rios then struck out and a double play ended the inning.

Kershaw didn’t allow much the remainder of his outing. The best threat the A’s got was in the 7th when Stephen Piscotty nearly homered and settled for a double with two outs. Moreland ended the inning by grounding out to first.

Former A, Blake Treinen got the eighth inning He walked Tony Kemp with one out and stole second on a 1-2 count to Mark Canha who then struck out. Lowrie then flew out to left field. Los Angeles added another run though in the ninth with a solo home run from Betts. He took reliever Jordan Weems deep.

With the game no longer a save situation Treinen remained in. He gave up a leadoff single to Laureano and got replaced with closer Kenley Jansen. Chapman ended up flying out weakly to right field after getting a pitch to hit after working the count full. Sean Murphy flew out to deep right, Piscotty walked, Moreland nearly blooped one in to score two that Lux made a nice running catch to end the game on.

As for the A’s the only good news is the streak of giving up eight or more runs is over at six. Five during the current season and one during the postseason. Oakland is now 0-6 on the season.

 

 

 

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