A’s squander early lead, lose to Twins

MINNEAPOLIS — There seems to be no limit to the number of times the A’s can put a late-inning rally or two together. They did it twice Monday, scoring once in the eighth and once in the ninth.

The A’s didn’t win, however, losing 8-7 to the Minnesota Twins in large part because there seems to be no limit to the how little damage control the Oakland bullpen can do.

It was R.J. Alvarez center stage this time, asked to hold a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning, men on second and third and none out. Normally it would have been Dan Otero, but the veteran had pitched on a career-high five consecutive days. Win or lose, manager Bob Melvin was “not about to hurt him” by going for a sixth day.

Alvarez broke the bat of Twins center fielder Jordan Schafer, inducing a soft roller back to the mound. It was just what the A’s wanted … until the ball got past Alvarez.

“I make that play all the time,” he said. “This time, my foot slipped, and I couldn’t get there.”

Instead of having the runner freeze at third base, the Twins got a run. Two batters later Alvarez made what both he and catcher Stephen Vogt said was exactly the pitch they wanted. Torii Hunter hit a perfect bomb into the left field seats for a three-run homer that made it 8-5.

The A’s would come back with those late solo runs but would end one run short. Again. The A’s are 11-16 overall and are 0-7 in one-run games.

“Nine times out of 10, R.J. makes that play on the grounder,” Vogt said. “And R.J. actually executed that pitch against Torii. For whatever reason, Torii Hunter decided to sit on an inside fastball. He crushed it and kept it fair. It was a great swing.”

Vogt drove in five runs with a first-inning grand slam and a ninth-inning RBI double that missed being a game-tying homer by a couple feet. That, coupled with a diving catch in center from Schafer that stole a run in the eighth inning, helped ratchet up the pain in the A’s clubhouse to the level of a root canal.

“It’s frustrating. There’s no hiding it anymore,” Vogt said. “We’re squaring up balls right at people, and we’re giving up broken bat two-RBI doubles. We’re struggling late in the game to get people out. It’s just frustrating.”

So for the ninth time in 10 tries this season, Oakland was not able to stretch a winning streak to as many as two games. The A’s won back-to-back games on April 13 and 14. Since then, they have been one-and-done every time, leading to a record that is very much indicative of the way Oakland has played.

Much of that rests with the bullpen, which has now allowed two runs or more in 12 of the last 18 games. The relievers’ ERA is 4.82, the worst in the A.L., and Monday’s performance was more gasoline on the fire.

The record isn’t all on the bullpen, but if the A’s were getting anything close to the level of performance they saw last year, there would be fewer games after which the A’s beat themselves up.

“Really, and it gets frustrating for the guys, too,” Melvin said. “We keep battling back no matter we’re down by how many runs. We get a lead, we lose it. It does get frustrating. You are not going to hit on all cylinders. Obviously this has been a serious deficiency for us and we have got to figure it out somehow.”

Monday was the fourth game the A’s lost despite scoring six or more runs.

“Somebody’s got to step up,” Melvin said.