Athletics' penchant for disastrous mistakes resurfaces with blown lead vs. Reds

On "A's Cast," Chris Townsend and Shooty Babitt discuss the Athletics' 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday at Great American Ball Park.

Athletics' penchant for disastrous mistakes resurfaces with blown lead vs. Reds originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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There have been some tough losses in 2026 for the Athletics, but this one, wow.

You got a good starting performance.

The birthday boy got three hits.

Jacob Wilson, healthy enough to get back out to shortstop, came up with a big hit, but in the end, you lose on a couple walks and a couple of wild pitches.

A rough one for the A's to start their road trip, losing five to four.

Chris Townsend alongside Shooty Babbitt.

Ugh.

This wasn't easy.

It was not easy to watch.

This is I mean, JT Game comes out, gives you a good outing.

Man, this was painful.

You know, I don't wanna be the Grinch, but I just got off the road, and one of the promotions that they had was, Christmas in July.

In Tulsa?

Yeah.

And thank goodness, I thought I wouldn't have to see another one of those, and lo and behold, I get back here, and as far as I'm concerned, this one was gift-wrapped.

I mean, for this team to have one extra base hit and to score five runs on five hits, there was a lot of gratuity involved here.

And, these are the kind, like you said, you're gonna remember some of these games, and this one is as painful as any.

Yeah.

Because we did everything right except executing situations where we needed to, and that's where we came up short.

So it's Yeah, it's a tough loss.

Yeah, we played for you in the pregame an interview that we did with David Forst, the general manager, last week in Sacramento, where he talked about, "I wanna see wins.

I won't talk about anything else.

I wanna see wins."

And what you saw tonight, especially after that rough home stand and the way it ended against Detroit, you had the day off.

All right, you're getting, you're getting your best pitcher back coming off the IL.

He goes out, and this is not an easy park to pitch in, the Great American Band Box, as a lot of people like to call it.

And he goes out there, and he pitches a really good game.

It's a quality start.

You hand your bullpen a lead, and it's not like the Reds hit it around the ballpark.

I mean, we're talking about you go into the eighth inning and, and you have that lead.

You gotta be able to hold that.

These are two teams that are probably disappointed in the type of year that they had.

The Cincinnati Reds had high expectations.

Early on, they were right up there with the rest of the teams in their division, and they've come up short.

But when you match up against teams that are going in the same direction as you are, a lot of times it kind of tells you where you are.

And especially when you feel like you have the upper hand, and you probably should have won these games, I think it gives you a gut check.

It, it's unfortunate, for no balls to be hit out of the ballpark in this ballpark here.

Yeah.

Emilio Pagan closing, I made light of it.

I think he pitched for the A's in the late '90s or something like that, is how long it's been.

And for him to come out and have success, it's just I guess it goes to show you, man, when the ball ain't bouncing your way, man, it is definitely not bouncing your way.

Let's get to t- the, to the Toyota turning point.

This is exactly what we're talking about, is you have the lead going into the eighth inning.

You got your best reliever out there, and Hogan Harris, who's not afraid to challenge guys, will end up walking the first two batters.

And whenever you walk the leadoff guy and then the second guy, it's got disaster written all over it.

Now, this play right here, you are not going to get Eliezer De La Cruz at second.

I, excuse me, at third.

You've got to not even allow that ball to get to third to allow Sal Stewart to get to second base.

Well, I think where it comes into play here, I like the aggressiveness on Lawrence's part.

But in this situation, you're trying to make sure that you're coming up throwing and making a good throw, as if you're trying to throw the guy out.

But the most important part, you have to hit the cutoff man.

Unfortunately, it's a short hop there.

Jacob has to come and get that ball.

So the play unfolded right there, and I don't know if Hogan I don't know what he was trying to do, set up his next pitch or something and set, throw the ball up high in the zone, but for some reason, I mean, he just lost his command on both sides of the plate.

You're talking about giving up two runs without giving up a hit.

So you lost the lead without giving up a hit.

That is hard to swallow.

Well, you had David Forst on today, and, he's talking about what we do need to is win games.

And it's so difficult to get 27 outs in this game.

Yeah.

And to give some away makes the job even more difficult, but you have to play good baseball.

You have to execute.

When your team is in the situation they are now, they're not healthy, not playing their best baseball, you cannot afford to not do the small things because they end up turning into things that pretty much determine the outcome of the game, as we saw here.

I mean, not being able to play catch.

It wasn't a matter we gave up a home run, or we couldn't keep them in the ballpark, or we kicked the ball here and there.

It's the simple things of playing catch.

And I know when you're in a situation at the A's and your guys are pressing, guys wanna go out there and help do everything they can, to get this losing streak or to elevate these wins.

And when you do that, you end up just, I think, just making the problem even more, difficult.

So man, yeah, tough loss here.

We can turn it over any way we want to, but we gonna find the same thing on the other side.

It just wasn't good.

When you're watching the game on TV too, it, it, it's tough to, to really analyze that play on that fly out to right and then when Lawrence is coming up, and obviously Lawrence is trying to put a good throw on it, but you know Eliezer De La Cruz is one of the fastest human beings in our game.

You're not gonna get him at third, and whether I really like to see how that hop was for Jacob Wilson, but Jacob's gotta know, "I can't allow Sal Stewart to get to second base."

You're the cutoff guy.

You've gotta make sure Sal Stewart doesn't get there 'cause if Sal Stewart doesn't get to second base, who knows how this game turns out.

I think the play was set up properly.

I mean, what it's designed to do, to make a solid throw, to make it look like an attempt to throw the guy out at third base.

Most of the time that shortstop comes up there and fakes the throw and act like he's freezing the runner.

That way he won't get an opportunity to get that jump to go to third base.

But unfortunately, the ball, like you said, we couldn't tell if it was offline or- Yeah just a short hop, whatever the case may be.

Give Hogan, a whole lot of credit for being there.

A lot of times pitchers are late being in that situation.

Even when they're there, the ball seem to bounce the wrong way, and that guy goes home.

So even with that happening, we still had another opportunity, and I don't know if he got crossed up here or if he just held onto it too long, and it was just one that Jonah could not reach over there and get, but man, oh man.

I mean, just, just the mis- the miscues, the small things.

I don't mean to- Little things labor the point, but man, that was the difference in this ball game.

And it's sad 'cause the little things, you know, as you said, ball didn't go out of the ballpark today, and a team that's struggling and trying to find itself, you know, 50 games left.

If you win this game, to start the road trip off the right way, you know, the little things, you gotta be able to do that, especially when you're not, when you are not hitting the ball out of the ballpark.

Well, everybody's being evaluated, a- and that's what's the value of these 50 games.

When you're not in it, you pay more attention to what guys are doing individually.

And, back in the day, they used to call these time of the year, this time of the year salary drive.

You know, it's all about trying to get your bread for next year because if you go out and perform, at the end of the year, they're gonna look at individual s- stats.

There's no more team awards right now.

Yes, you can help your team.

They're not saying go out and be selfish, but you gotta go out there and be the best player that you can be because there's a lot on the line, and it's those small things.

I mean, like, we have some extra guys that typically are extra guys getting a lot of run right now.

And when you play on a limited basis, it's because when you come in in those situation, you execute.

If you're a guy that hit and run or bunt and can get a sac fly and go play defense, lo and behold, those are the things that you have to do.

We're not asking you to hit home runs.

We're not asking you to come out with big-time hits.

Be the guy that got you here, and that's what's gonna keep you here.

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