With four words on Friday evening, A’s manager Mark Kotsay succinctly summarized the state of affairs in Oakland.
“We’re costing ourselves wins,” Kotsay told reporters.
As was the case with the team’s latest defeat. The A’s surrendered two leads to the Twins on Friday night at Target Field, paving the way for a 6-5, 10-inning loss that extended Oakland’s losing streak to seven games.
“When we were playing well, when we were closing games out, we were executing fundamentally, we were playing good defense, we were adding onto leads,” Kotsay said. “We just haven’t been able to do that in the last 10, 12 days.”
Kotsay’s assessment of his club, which is 3-10 in June, is correct. Over the last six days, Oakland has squandered three opportunities to secure a win.
On Sunday, the A’s led the Blue Jays, 3-2, heading into the eighth inning. Scott Alexander allowed the game-tying run in the eighth, Toronto’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a three-run triple in the 10th and Oakland lost in extras.
On Wednesday, the A’s led the Padres, 4-2, heading, again, into the eighth inning. Lucas Erceg surrendered the game-tying, two-run home run to Donovan Solano in the eighth, then Jackson Merrill blasted the walk-off home run off Mason Miller in the ninth.
On Friday, Oakland lost not one, but two leads en route to the loss.
The A’s jumped out to a 4-0 advantage in the first as Shea Langeliers sat on Simeon Woods Richardson’s hanging slider and sent the mistake into the left-field bleachers for his first career grand slam of his career. With the way Mitch Spence pitched early, those four runs looked like they’d be plenty.
Spence, fresh off tossing seven innings of two-run ball, only allowed one run through his first five innings, needing only 65 pitches. In the sixth, the Twins had their equalizer. Spence surrendered a game-tying, three-run home run to Max Kepler, who didn’t initially realize the ball had cleared the fences. Spence recorded one more out before Kotsay went to his bullpen.
The A’s briefly took the lead in the seventh inning when Brent Rooker tripled home JJ Bleday, smashing a 403-foot line drive off the right-center field fence that would’ve been a home run in 20 ballparks, per Baseball Savant. They lost that advantage in the eighth as the Twins scored without recording a hit.
Erceg, making his second appearance back from the injured list, faced four batters and recorded just one out. Following Max Schuemann’s fielding error, Erceg plunked Kepler and walked Jose Miranda to load the bases. Kotsay called upon closer Mason Miller, who subsequently walked Carlos Santana to tied the game at five. Miller prevented further damage, but Oakland had lost its second lead of the night.
“I brought him in a tough situation: bases loaded, Santana’s a tough hitter,” Kotsay said. “Once the error was made behind Lucas, (there was) the hit batter and walk. That’s three free bases there. … Bringing Mason in there, trying to go for a strikeout. Obviously, the walk is not something that he has done in the past, but then he executes two outs and we get out of a big jam.”
Oakland couldn’t score against Minnesota’s Jhoan Duran in the top of the ninth, but Miller retired the side in the bottom half in his second inning of work, pushing the game to extra innings.
The A’s failed to score in the top of the 10th inning, setting the stage for more Kepler heroics. After Kotsay chose to intentionally walk Carlos Correa, Kepler lined the first pitch he saw off first baseman Tyler Soderstrom and into right field, easily scoring Austin Martin.
“Really tough loss,” Kotsay said. “This stretch, we’ve given some games away, really. These guys, they’re giving everything they have, but … we’ve got to make plays.”
UP NEXT: RHP Joey Estes (2-2, 4.78 ERA) is set to start Saturday for Oakland against RHP Bailey Ober (5-4, 5.13).