Jemile Weeks Frustrated At Ended Game on Strikeout

OAKLAND – Trailing 2-0 in the ninth inning, the A’s mounted a rally off former Oakland closer Huston Street and got one of their best young hitters to the plate in Jemile Weeks with the tying run just 90 feet away.

But on a 1-2 pitch, Street blew one past Weeks to help San Diego avoid a sweep and end the A’s season-high five-game win streak.

“Fastball inside,” Weeks said of the pitch that ended the game. “I don’t usually swing through fastballs I can hit.”

A day after the A’s celebrated a comeback win in a raucous clubhouse, Weeks stood at his locker in a much quieter setting.

“Disappointing,” he said. “As a player, I feel like I’m one of the best out there on the field. So to not come through or at least put the ball in play, it’s frustrating.”

Padres starter Clayton Richard frustrated the A’s all afternoon, setting Street up for the save in the ninth. San Diego’s southpaw worked 7.2 innings before giving way to Street and allowed just five hits and two walks while striking out six.

“He just mixed his pitches,” Weeks said. “They made some good plays on defense. We just didn’t capitalize.”

The A’s did have some chances against Richard, but they were few and far between. Heading into the ninth, the A’s had advanced a runner to third base just once.

A’s manager Bob Melvin said that he thought his team was going to pull out the win after Coco Crisp’s single cut the Padres’ lead to 2-1 in the ninth.

Instead, the A’s fell just short, missing the chance to complete their second series sweep of the season.

“Obviously we weren’t as good,” Melvin said. “Going into the game we certainly had a lot of confidence going and early on it was tough to even see too many good swings.”

Richard was working ugly swings out of the A’s into the eight inning, and A’s starter Bartolo Colon was long gone by then.

Colon’s outing was cut short by a right oblique strain he sustained when fielding a sacrifice bunt in the third inning. After his errant throw to first base, Colon received a visit from Melvin and the training staff and hit the showers.

After the game, Colon said he dealt with a similar oblique injury on the opposite side in 1999 that forced him to miss 28 games.

The A’s won’t know how long they’ll be without Colon until they receive the results of Monday’s MRI, but Melvin acknowledged that Saturday’s starter Tyson Ross could be a candidate to re-join the team if Colon is out for an extended period of time.

Another injury-plagued starter, Brandon McCarthy, is set to return to the bump when the A’s open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. Interleague games against N.L. West opponents have been kind to the A’s, Sunday’s loss notwithstanding, and Weeks will be anxiously waiting for a chance to atone for his most recent at-bat.


(csnbayarea.com)