The Oakland Athletics dropped to 0-2 as their much-hyped bullpen struggled for the second consecutive night. Relief pitcher Craig Breslow gave up a run and temporary closer Brian Fuentes gave up three runs as the Seattle Mariners won the second game of the three game series.
Brett Anderson put together a solid performance, lasting six innings while giving up one run on five hits and a walk. Anderson struck out five but struggled a bit with pitch count as he left the game after 108 pitches. Heading into this year that was not viewed as a problem because the A’s bullpen was expected to be quite solid.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case through two games. Craig Breslow struggled for the second straight game as he gave up one run on two hits in 1/3 of an inning, leaving his era at 27.00. The A’s managed to even the game back up at two apiece heading into the ninth inning. Brian Fuentes came on and struggled as well, giving up three runs on three hits. One of the runs was unearned due to a throwing error by Daric Barton.
The A’s offense scored two runs for the second straight game and will be looking to get something going sooner rather than later. While newly acquired Josh Willingham drove in a key eighth inning run, Hideki Matsui remained hitless and David DeJesus only managed one hit in the A’s loss.