NewsA's come up short vs. Galarraga, Tigers
Lack of run support hinders rookie Gonzalez's outing
By Mychael Urban / MLB.com
07/01/09 1:48 AM ET
OAKLAND -- Having banged out at least 10 hits in each of their previous three games, the A's had every reason to feel good about their bats heading into Tuesday night's matchup with Tigers right-hander Armando Galarraga.On May 17 in Detroit, Oakland's offense pummeled Galarraga into his earliest exit of the season, taxing him for five runs on four hits and three walks over two-thirds of an inning.
Never mind that the Tigers somehow erased that five-run deficit and won the game. That's another issue.
The point is, the A's were so confident Tuesday that manager Bob Geren let one of his several slumping sluggers -- Jack Cust -- talk him into starting.
"He said he sees the ball pretty well against [Galarraga]," Geren explained.
Unfortunately for the A's and their fans, Cust (1-for-1 with two walks) appeared to be the only one in home whites with a good read on Galarraga, who held Oakland to two hits while working into the seventh inning of a 5-3 victory in the second game of a three-game series at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
As evidenced by his season-high six walks, Galarraga wasn't exactly hitting every spot, but he pitched well in traffic and was dinged only by a Cust single that followed a Ryan Sweeney triple in the fourth inning.
Mark Ellis helped make the ninth inning interesting by hitting his second home run in two nights, a two-run shot with one out that filled Adam Kennedy's subsequent single with promise. But Orlando Cabrera bounced into a double play to end the game.
The end was every bit as disappointing as the beginning for the A's, who were in a 2-0 hole after lefty Gio Gonzalez's seventh pitch of the game. After a four-pitch walk to Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco drilled a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left field.
But with a huge assist from the Tigers, who ran themselves out of a bigger inning when Marcus Thames and Ryan Raburn both ended up at third base after Raburn's one-out double, Gonzalez escaped further damage on the way to five fairly solid innings of seven-hit, three-run work.
Detroit ran into another out after getting runners to second and third with one out in the second when Magglio Ordonez broke for home plate too early on a ground ball to third baseman Kennedy.
"It helped a lot," Gonzalez said of the Detroit's early gaffes. "It changed the game completely."
Not quite. Once Galarraga got past the first inning, in which he walked two but escaped by getting Kurt Suzuki to hit into a double play, it was all but over.
"We had our chances early," Geren said. "We've had some good late-inning rallies recently, but we're missing some opportunities early, and we need to improve on that."
Gonzalez, making his second start since being recalled from Triple-A Sacramento on June 24 to replace injured lefty Josh Outman, fell to 0-2 on the year, but earned another shot at cementing his status in the rotation by showing much-improved poise.
"This outing I was a little more relaxed, a little more comfortable," said Gonzalez, who said he could have thrown more than his 84 pitches but didn't have a problem with leaving after facing the minimum over his final two frames.
"I think what they wanted to do was keep things positive for the next start."
Mychael Urban is a national writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
