Astros Astonish A's
Unsung Astros pitcher Russ Lawson hurls shutout to outduel Purcell
The same team that won 16 games in a row last season has now lost 3 times as many games as last season. The A's are hitting and pitching as well as last year when they went 17-1, but small mistakes and bad breaks are costing the A's, never more so than in a 2-0 loss to the Astros.
Shawn Purcell pitched more than well enough to pick up the victory for the A's (5-3), but he was matched by Russ Lawson and the Astros (4-4), who handed the lanky righty his first loss of the season.
"Lawson pitched a great game, but I still feel like we should have won this game," A's manager Ryan Metcalfe said. "This is the kind of game we would have won last year. Sure we got all the breaks last year, but we also made our own breaks by not making as many mistakes and putting the pressure on the other guy to make mistakes. Both their runs scored on mistakes by us or the umpires and some base running mistakes cost us a couple runs and kept hurt our chances of having a big inning."
The Astros (4-4) scored their first run off Purcell in the fourth on a walk and a pair of singles to right. Brett Mitchell led off with a walk and after a pop out Fabian Lara hit a soft fly to right, right in the right spot.
"There's a huge mud puddle and I took one step in there and just lost it," Keith Lederer said of the mud patch created by a broken sprinkler which caused the previous A's game to be moved to Casa Grande's JV field.
Instead of two outs and one on, the Astros had two on and one out due to Lara's mud induced single. The breaks only broke worse for the A's when Mitchell tried to steal third and Brodie Nissen threw a strike to Mike Mastro who held his glove right in front of the bad where Mitchell slid and was called safe.
"He was out," Nissen exclaimed. "I clearly had him. I don't know what that ump was thinking, but he missed that one and a couple others. We should have won this game 3 or 4 to nothing."
The Astros scored their 2nd run on a pair of errors and an infield single in the 8th. Lawson finished the game with a 1-2-3 ninth, only his second such inning in his complete-game victory. The A's reached first in 16 of their 32 plate appearances with 6 hits, 5 walks and a hit by pitch.
The A's left the bases loaded in the 7th, but their best chance to score was in the 4th when Purcell (2-for-3) hit a leadoff single and Clinton Yeager entered as a courtesy runner and Billy Dodson walked. Mike Mastro' (2-for-3) followed with a sharp single to left and Yeager hustled for home as the ball dribbled into the infield after a missed cutoff throw, but Lawson was there to pick up the ball and pick off Yeager on a close play at the plate.
"I got arm in there way before the tag," Yeager said.
Yeager very well may have been safe, but Metcalfe was still frustrated by Yeager's decision to run home.
"I can't knock the guy for hustle, he's one of the top hustlers in the league, but with nobody out and Brodie coming up it just wasn't worth the risk," Metcalfe said. "And Brodie came through with what could have been a sacrifice fly. Gee wiz! Clint could have walked home on a ball that deep. It also could have been a two run double 20 feet to the right and might have been over the fence 20 feet to the left. That's the kind of game it was."
Yeager also got thrown out at the plate in the sixth and was 1-for-2 trying to steal second. Metcalfe said Yeager should have had two more stolen bases, one of which could have replaced the caught stealing in the third.
"Twice Clint got a great jump on the first with no strikes on Shawn, but Shawn swung," Metcalfe said. "Sure, I'm mad Shawn swing, but I also need to realize that guys can't read my mind. I came to that conclusion talking with Brodie. We've got to start using signs and I've got to do a better job of letting players know what I want them to do. The players made some mistakes, but I made more as a manger to cost us this one. I just hope we learned enough from it to make a difference in the playoffs."
The playoffs are no sure thing for the A's who sit alone in third, 2 games back of the Titans and Nationals and 1 game in front of the Astros and Blue Jays. The A's will look to get back on track against the Mets in a 2 p.m. game Sunday at Napa High.
Shawn Purcell hurls the ball plateward during one of his better outings of the season, but he was tagged with his first loss giving up 6 hits, 3 walks and one earned run to go with eight strikeouts.
Keith Lederer goes with the pitch for a sharp single to right. After going hitless in the first two games he has at least one hit in 5 of the last 6 games.
Brodie Nissen hit the ball harder than anyone in the game, but only had an out to show for it on a deep fly to the base of the wall in left.
Billy Dodson fields a grounder and races toward second base. The runner beat him there, but Dodson got the out at first in time with a strong throw.
Kevin Metcalfe laced a single to left to extend his hitting streak to 2 games and raise his average above the dreaded Mendoza line.
Purcell- MVP
