Last night the Cleveland Guardians ended their seven game losing streak in dramatic fashion. Today there was more and both wins are the results of the mistakes of Oakland Athletics first year manager Mark Kotsay.
Oakland took an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. So what happened in the seventh? Justin Grimm struggled giving up a double to Myles Straw, Owen Miller doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs.
Kotsay inexcusably then has Domingo Acevedo pitch to Jose Ramirez who leads the American League in runs batted in. That plan backfired immediately as he doubled to bring the Guardians back making it an 8-7 deficit.
The next hitter Josh Naylor tagged Acevedo for a two-run home run. So what was an 8-5 lead, turned to a 9-8 deficit. Oakland did have their chances against Emmanuel Clase after getting a runner to third in the bottom of the ninth, yet Jed Lowrie weakly grounded out with the infield in and Sean Murphy looked lost against the hard throwing right-hander.
Still the better question remains why did Kotsay not go with A.J. Puk in that situation? It means Ramirez gets to hit from the right side for the first time or better yet intentionally walk him. In that situation there was no reason to pitch to him.
Obviously the walk loads the bases. Still it means Naylor is facing a left-handed pitcher in Puk.
Today it took Kotsay to the ninth before he made his mistake. Sure Dany Jimenez was not helped by the A’s defense, yet there was still an opportunity to get to the bottom of the ninth inning with the score tied.
With two outs and facing the pinch hitter Richie Palacios, Jimenez threw three sliders in the dirt. This is where Kotsay with a base open needed to walk the next hitter to get to the Guardians ninth place hitter who has a batting average well below .200.
Instead, Jimenez went after Palacios with another fastball that he drove to the left center field gap, with Cristian Pache almost making a nice running catch to end the inning, instead two runs scored and Clase once against closed the door on the A’s.
That is back-to-back losses for the A’s thanks to Kotsay. Yet that is not the worst of it, today Billy McKinney was batting third in the lineup.