Oller’s changeup gave him a ‘chance’ in A’s loss to Marlins originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
After taking the series from the Seattle Mariners this past weekend, the Athletics could not parlay that into an opening win against the Miami Marlins on Monday, falling 3-0 at the Oakland Coliseum.
The Marlins were coming to the Bay Area for a three-game set after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. But, rather than take advantage of Miami’s strugglers, A’s batters could not figure out starting pitcher Edward Cabrera.
Meanwhile, Oakland starting pitcher Adam Oller went six innings and gave up three earned runs, keeping the A’s in the game without having command of his fastball. Instead, the 27-year-old relied on his changeup, throwing it 22 times for 20 percent of his pitch count, as MLB’s Baseball Savant showed.
“Overall, he got through six innings, without command really of the fastball. If it wasn’t for his changeup tonight, I think he used his changeup 15 plus times,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters postgame. “So the changeup really kept him in the game and got him through six innings.”
Oller relied on his changeup due to the A’s pitcher admitting postgame that it was the only pitch he was confident in, considering his fastball generated two Whiffs on 42 pitches.
“Fastball command wasn’t there, even the cutter, which usually that’s always there, the cutter wasn’t there,” Oller told reporters.
“Thankfully, the changeup was there, and for being a fairly, not a new pitch, but a pitch that I haven’t thrown a whole lot of, it was able to give me a lot of chance tonight.”
Despite battling command and giving Oakland six innings, when the bats never woke up, those three earned runs turned into a significant obstacle to overcome.
Additionally, Cabrera limited the A’s bats to two hits in eight innings while striking out seven, leaning heavily on his changeup too by throwing it on 38 occasions for 12 whiffs. Nevertheless, Kotsay had to tip his cap to the 24-year-old’s performance as the offense had no answer.
“That kid’s got really good stuff,” Kotsay told reporters postgame. “… We didn’t take advantage of that early two walks situation, but he made pitches. It’s a really good mix, and there are nights when you have to tip your cap to what a pitcher was able to do.
“… The changeup is a weapon; it’s an equalizer. It’s off the same lane as a sinker and sinkers up to 97. So he made his pitches tonight, and you tip your cap to them on your end.”
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Oakland will now turn the page and look to Tuesday when they send out Zach Logue (3-7, 6.35 ERA) and attempt to level up the series. On the other hand, Miami sends out another quality arm in Pablo López (7-8, 3.83 ERA) to try and take the second game of the series.