Oakland – Giants pitcher Alex Cobb didn’t mince his words on his performance after the San Francisco blew a three-run lead Sunday. The A’s beat the Giants 8-6, with Oakland sweeping the series 2-0.
“I just didn’t have it,” Cobb said. “I didn’t have much on the fastball, really any of the pitches. Just kind of in battle mode the whole day.”
Cobb’s only 1-2-3 inning came in the fourth frame where he got Brent Rooker, Jordan Diaz, and Tyler Soderstrom all to ground out in the inning with the Giants down 4-3.
Cobb went 5 ⅓ innings allowing five runs on seven hits. This was his worst performance since his July 20th outing at the Reds where he allowed five runs on nine hits.
To add to the frustration, Cobb’s lackluster outing overshadowed a day where San Francisco’s lineup battled trading runs with the Athletics throughout the game. LaMonte Wade Jr. opened the scoring for the Giants, scoring on an RBI single by J.D. Davis in the first inning.
Wade singled on the second pitch of the game, lining a Luis Medina pitch inches over the head of shortstop Nick Allen to start the game. The hit came a day after Wade Jr. was inches away from a leadoff home run to right to leadoff the game.
“A little bit of extra frustration when the offense kind of starts to turn things on a little bit,” said Cobb. “We’ve been waiting for that kind of breakout as a team.”
San Francisco’s nine hits came a day after they barely managed three hits against Oakland’s pitching. Wade went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and catcher Patrick Bailey went 2-for-3 with an RBI to highlight the Giants offensive production today.
The A’s made it tough for Cobb as Allen, the nine-hitter who hit under .200 with just one home run on the season, He hit a pair of home runs off of Cobb, the first was a two-run rocket to left to give Oakland a 3-2 lead. Allen’s second homer came in the fifth inning, pulling the A’s within two at 6-4.
San Francisco took the lead back in the third off of an RBI single by Bailey and an RBI off a fielder’s choice to second off Brandon Crawford to go up 4-3. They would extend their lead in the fifth off a pair of RBI singles by Wade Jr. and Thairo Estrada to go up 6-3.
“I had that opportunity in front of me today and the team seemingly gave me everything I needed early and I just couldn’t,” Cobb explained. “I let the team down and I had a really good opportunity to flush what happened early. (The lineup) gave me a new chance and wasn’t able to capitalize.”
Crawford also struggled with a rare pair of errors, the first came in the sixth with one away that helped spark the Oakland’s rally. Crawford threw a routine grounder by Brent Rooker short of first to extend the inning. The second came in the eighth inning as he misthrew a grounder up the middle wide of Wade at first with two away. Crawford also went 0-for-5 at the plate with a run scored and an RBI on the fielder’s choice.
The Giants travel to Anaheim to start a three-game series against the Angels Monday night.
