The Oakland A’s ended a four-game losing streak on Tuesday night. Now, the A’s want to start a winning streak when they face the host Baltimore Orioles again on Wednesday night.
The 13-2 victory over Baltimore on Tuesday gave the A’s their first road win of the season. Oakland had not played on the road until this three-city, 10-game trip began, and it dropped the first four games — three to the Houston Astros and then the series opener against the Orioles on Monday night.
During the first part of the season, Oakland has struggled at the plate. But the A’s have hit better in the past few days and hope that will continue.
They came into Tuesday’s game with just a .237 team batting average but did score eight runs in Sunday’s loss in the series finale in Houston. The A’s scored four in Monday’s 12-4 loss in Baltimore but banged out 11 hits.
Then, in Tuesday’s win, Jurickson Profar went 4-for-5 with five RBI while Marcus Semien hit a three-run homer and drove in four. The A’s finished with 14 hits and upped the team’s batting average to .246.
“We have some guys that are going to put up some numbers,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s nice to break out power-wise.”
Also for Oakland, Ramon Laureano came back after missing Monday’s game with a jammed right thumb.
Melvin said Monday he thought the center fielder could play Tuesday, and that’s what happened. Laureano went 1-for-4 in the rout, and he threw out Richie Martin at home in the third inning while trying to score on a Joey Rickard single.
Alex Cobb was supposed to start Wednesday for the Orioles, but they placed him on the 10-day injured list Tuesday, retroactive to April 6 due to a lumbar strain. Instead, the Orioles will go with right-hander Dan Straily as a starter and bring Josh Rogers up for long relief.
Straily (0-0, 33.75) will face right-hander Frankie Montas (1-1, 2.45). This will be the first time Montas has pitched against Baltimore. Straily has a career record of 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA against Oakland it’s his first appearance vs. the A’s this year.
The Orioles needed to make a few moves due to injuries with pitchers. Nate Karns went on the injured list with a right forearm strain. Evan Phillips was then recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to take his spot.
Phillips came on in relief of starter John Means in Tuesday’s loss and threw three shutout innings.
Also, the move with Cobb is the second time this season he has been on the injured list – a groin strain at start of the season was the other. He was supposed to start on Opening Day, but Andrew Cashner earned the honor.
The Orioles did not get much offense in Tuesday’s loss after the 12 runs in Game 1 of the series. Oakland starter Brett Anderson allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings, and the Orioles had some base-running issues that hurt them early.
“So we got a little too aggressive there at times,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “Just one of those nights where a lot of things didn’t work out.”
Chris Davis set a major league record for a hitless streak by a position player Monday, extending that dry spell to 0-for-49 dating to last season. But Davis did not play Tuesday as Hyde often seems to sit him against left-handers like Anderson.