It was only a matter of time before the Oakland Athletics would lose. Baltimore Orioles lefty John Means was the perfect starter to accomplish the feat.
He doesn’t particularly throw hard and since Bob Melvin has taken over, Means was the perfect antidote to the A’s offense. He responded with a solid performance today. His only blemish a solo home run given up to Ramon Laureano in the fourth inning.
Means threw 6.1 innings, giving up two hits and a run while striking out six and walking three. His last walk was to Matt Chapman and ended his day as Adam Plutko came on in relief. He struck out pinch hitter Seth Brown and got Elvis Andrus to pop out.
For the A’s starter Jesus Luzardo didn’t pitch poorly. The difference was Austin Hays who took advantage of both of his mistakes as he hit a solo home run in the second inning and then a two run shot in the fourth. Maikel Franco added what seemed like an insurance run at the time in the eighth inning with a solo home run off Deolis Guerra.
Guerra got Pedro Severino to fly out, yet he then gave up back-to-back walks to Ryan Mountcastle and Hays before getting Freddy Galvis to fly out to center field. Ramon Urias ended up walking to load the bases. Ryan McKenna then worked the count full and fouled off several pitches before he walked to make the score 5-1.
A’s did get a chance to end the inning after Adam Kolarek came in as he got Cedric Mullins to hit the ball on the ground yet Elvis Andrus committed an error to prolong the inning for the Orioles. Trey Mancini then singled in two, before Kolarek walked Franco to load the bases again. Severino ended the inning by striking out.
With an 8-1 deficit the A’s got no chance of winning their 14th straight. The A’s got a lead off single by Jed Lowrie and Zac Lowther who was making his Major League debut got Matt Olson to fly out to deep left field, Laureano to ground out and Matt Chapman became his first strikeout victim to end the game.
The A’s 13 game winning streak is officially over thanks to Means and the Orioles.