A’s offense falls flat in 6-1 loss

San Diego scores six unanswered as the A’s offense spoils a quality Joey Estes effort

The A’s offense gave fans the full A’s offense experience Monday afternoon.

Runners left on base due to poor situational hitting, strikeouts aplenty and of course a home run mixed along in there could summarize the last month of A’s baseball. It also perfectly captivated tonight as the A’s lost to the San Diego Padres by a final of 6-1.

The A’s spoiled another noble pitching effort as well as Joey Estes cashed in a strong effort on the mound keeping his team within distance against a tough offense. Padres ace Dylan Cease would outduel him ever so slightly, however, as the A’s have now scored 13 runs over their last eight games.

After the A’s all went down via strikeout in the first, Tyler Soderstrom flipped the narrative temporarily to lead-off the second blasting a solo home to right center. His second big fly of the season drew the A’s first blood as they lead 1-0.

Estes worked around a one-out bases-loaded jam in the bottom half but the Padres got that run back the next inning with a Jake Cronenworth solo shot.

The Padres took the lead in the next frame thanks to a Jackson Merrill double sliced perfectly along the left field line and a Ha-Seong Kim RBI single. They then made it three straight innings scoring a run when Fernando Tatis Jr. impressively slapped a home run to right in the fifth inning.

Tatis’ league-high hit-streak is now at 16 games and he’s homered five times during it. Estes would last just a few batters later as his day ended after five innings.

Estes wasn’t fantastic, but he kept the A’s within arms reach of the lead. He allowed eight hits and three earned runs while striking out three. Estes would still suffer the loss as his offense couldn’t give him much.

Hits and runners were flowing all night for the A’s but their situational at-bats were poor. They had runners aboard in the third, fifth, and sixth innings but never had anything to show for it going 0-4 with RISP and leaving 11 on base. The A’s have hit .210 with RISP this season — good for worst in baseball.

Credit Cease as well; he was in control most of his night and seemed to strikeout anyone he wanted to on command. He wound up going six innings while allowing the one run, eight strikeouts but eight hits. Miguel Andujar had two of those while Zack Gelof had a pair of infield knocks as well.

Righty reliever Michel Otanez made his big-league debut in the seventh with one out and the bases loaded after Sean Newcomb gifted him the most optimal scenario possible. Perhaps nerves got the best of Otanez as he struggled with command and allowed home three runs on a walk, single and sac fly. He also sat through a three-minute light delay to cap off a really bizarre debut. The Padres lead 6-1 after seven which is about eight games worth of runs for the A’s right now.

A’s hitters had to have been relieved seeing Cease leave the game with a bottom-half Padres bullpen on the way, but that pen was lights out tonight. Southpaw Alex Morejon did nasty work in just 0.2 innings, Enyel De Los Santos worked around a lead-off walk to pitch a scoreless eighth, and Robert Suarez proved why he’s one of the best closers in the ninth going 1-2-3.

All three struck out at least a pair as the A’s combined for 16 punch outs. They slapped eight hits total as well but record just the one run.

Both teams will line it up again tomorrow at the same 6:40 PM PDT first pitch for game two of the series. JP Sears, the A’s last man standing from their Opening Day rotation, toes the rubber against the Padres Randy Vasquez.