The Oakland Athletics sure would like to be swinging better in late September with the playoffs fast approaching.
Robbie Grossman provided a pair of home runs in his first career multi-homer game for the AL West champions yet again the A’s stumbled to a 12-3 loss in Game 2 as the Seattle Mariners swept their doubleheader Saturday.
“It’s not a great feeling. It’s a major league baseball game, you’re trying to win,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “The first one was tough, obviously. We felt like we had a pretty good chance to win that game and we didn’t.nike cheap nfl jerseys
“Had some opportunities. Second game we knew the pitching was going to be a little bit limited and there were some guys I didn’t want to use in this game so it ended up getting a little bit out of hand. You’ve just got to put the day away and come play tomorrow and know that’s the last game of the regular season and the postseason starts.”
J.P. Crawford delivered all day for Seattle. He hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning of a 5-1 extra-innings Game 1 win after his tying single in the sixth, then added an RBI double in an eight-run third during the nightcap.
Kyle Seager homered in both games, and Tim Lopes connected in the second.
Seager hit a two-run drive in the eighth inning of the opener and a solo shot in the second game for the Mariners, who bounced back from a tough loss a night earlier with a pair of impressive wins.
Grossman connected on solo drives in the first and fifth innings against right-hander Justin Dunn (3-1).
Tommy La Stella tripled to begin the sixth in Game 1, but the A’s couldn’t capitalize against former Oakland right-hander Kendall Graveman (1-3).nfl nike jerseys for cheap
“That was great to be able to go out in a high-leverage situation, especially this whole month, and to be able to do that with some added Adrenalin,” Graveman said.
Khris Davis hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, but that was it for the A’s, whose hitting is hardly where they would hope.
“I have no doubt in this team. We’re the best team in the division, I would take us over anyone,” Grossman said. “It’s been a grind.”
The typically slugging A’s (35-23), who will host a best-of-three wild-card series starting Tuesday at the Coliseum, are still struggling as an offense but doing just enough. They won 3-1 in 10 innings Friday night on Mark Canha’s two-run homer.
