OAKLAND, Calif. — Seth Brown hit a two-run double in the sixth inning and Christian Pache continued his wizardry in center field Tuesday night as the A’s beat the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 at the Coliseum.
Brown’s blow came against reliever Mike Baumann, the losing pitcher. It made a winner out of Zach Logue, a left-hander making his big league debut. Pache took away a potential double from Kelvin Gutierrez in right center in the second inning and then ran down a blow from Austin Hays in left center in the eighth.
The A’s improved to 7-5, with the Orioles falling to 3-8
Zach Logue, who relieved starter Cole Irvin in the sixth, pitched 1 1/3 innings in his major league debut. Logue was promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas recently and was acquired in the deal that sent Matt Chapman to Toronto.
After a 1-2-3 sixth, Logue got the first out of the seventh before giving up a single to Cedric Mullins and walking Anthony Santander. Ryan Castellani, pitching in his first game for the A’s, came on to get the final two outs of the inning and pitched a scoreless eighth, with Sam Moll getting the first two outs in the ninth and Zach Jackson recording a one-out save with the game-tying runner aboard.
The A’s finally broke through in the sixth inning for a two-run double by Brown against Baumann, who relieved starter Chris Ellis in the fifth.
Billy McKinney opened the inning with what appeared to be a bunt single, only to have it reversed on replay. Christian Bethancourt followed with a single and Elvis Andrus walked before Brown drove in both with a drive to right-center, giving Oakland a 2-1 lead.
Irvin departed trailing 1-0, giving up a run in the first inning on a run-scoring ground out by Trey Mancini. Santander singled, was doubled to third by Ryan Mountcastle and scored on the grounder. Although Irvin made it through five innings, he wasn’t nearly as sharp as he was in his previous start against Tampa Bay. He gave up six hits, walked two, struck out four and needed 95 pitches — 62 of them strikes.
THE FEW, THE PROUD
The A’s attendance of 3,748 was the lowest in a non-pandemic year since Sept. 25, 1980, in a 6-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox that drew 3,180. Oakland had a single-game attendance of 2,140 earlier that season and in 1979 averaged 3,787 for an entire season when it went 54-108 under Jim Marshall. In that 1979 season, the A’s bottomed out with an attendance of 653 on April 17, 1979, a game in which they beat Seattle 6-5.
PACHE PICKS IT
Pache turned in a highlight-reel catch on a drive by Gutierrez in the second inning against Irvin. Pache tracked the drive to right center, got a glove on the ball at the top of his leap and then caught it as it came free and he was heading to the ground. He did it again in the eight with Castellani on the mound, chasing down a drive to deep left center by Hays that looked headed for extra bases.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
The A’s announced the starting time for Wednesday’s game has been changed from 6:40 p.m. to 3:07 p.m. because of the possibility of inclement weather in the evening.
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